HDTV Card Suggestions

[phenixdragon]

So being that I am new to HDTV I am clueless on what card to get. But I think my best options are these 4 cards:

AVerMedia AverTVHD MCE A180 HDTV
VBOX Cat's Eye DTA-150 ATSC Terrestrial
DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Lite
DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Gold

Does anyone know which card is considered "the best" card there is? Pric doesn't really matter to me, I would spend a few extra bucks to get the best quailty card. But basically I am looking for is what ever is going to use the least amount of resources on my machine but first provide the best pictuer quality there is.

I'm also pretty sure I won't need QAM support but maybe in the future. Which actually I should ask too. If my cable company has open QAM could I just plug them into the card and not use an antenna? If so, if I find out that I do need QAM support for that (which I am assuming OTA you don’t have QAM?) then if I had to I wouldn’t mind having a 3rd party app that only would record HDTV for me.

I’m not able too find to much info on comparing cards besides with the HDTV Wonder, which has an attractive price with a rebate at NewEgg but I have read that like the DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Lite has better signal strength then the Wonder does.

Which also reminds me, is there any difference in quality between the DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Lite and DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Gold? Because so far I am leaning towards getting the DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Lite.

Thanks!

[KarylFStein]

I've tried both the AVerMedia A180 and the VBox DTA-150. Both integrate well with SageTV of OTA tuning. I ordered the DTA-150 because I heard that it can pull in signals better in a multi-path environment and I do have trouble at times pulling in some of local channels. My antenna is in the attic and there are houses and large trees in the area.

I personally did not notice any picture difference between the two cards. In fact, the DTA-150 seemed to use more CPU and therefore negatively impact the smoothness of 1080i video. That is probably something that could be fixed in the driver, although I don't know if any driver updates are planned. I'm back to the A180 card just because I'm more familiar with it and it has an extra set of video inputs just in case I need them. (The DTA-151 has an SVideo input, but no composite and the audio is a single 1/8" jack instead of the RCA plugs on the A180.) I don't have anything bad to say about the DTA-150, but it doesn't seem any better than the A180. I'll be selling the barely used DTA-150 on eBay soon.

I have not tried to do QAM too much, so can't comment on that. If I were to try it, I'd buy the Fusion 5 because I've heard success stories with it. There's a recent thread in the forums here about Gold vs. Lite and the only difference seems to be in the bundled accessories (remote control, etc.) My wife has put a big sticker on the HTPC saying that it works and I can't tinker with it anymore, so QAM will have to wait .

[paulbeers]

Qam via coax is not an option. Sage/BeyondTv/Windows Media Center can not do it. Only the software that comes with the different hdtv cards can do it. It is a driver limitation.