Hauppauge HVR-1800 or HVR-1600

[tvmaster2]

Hi there. I currently use a Hauppauge 150 running on MCE 2005. The satellite feeder box is Starchoice HD 505 receiver. 23 channels of free HD (Starchoice doesn't charge for the channels, but you pay more to buy the receiver). Currently, I cannot record HD from this box, just watch it live, as the Hauppauge 150 isn't a HD card.

Question - does anyone know a good reason to move up to one of these other Hauppauge cards? I live between LA and San Diego, and have limited over-the-air HD, as I am just outside either cities HD transmission distance, although I now get about 6-10 channels from a roof-top antenna thru a Samsung set-top box (in addition to my satellite HD).

I believe the Starchoice box is a rebranded Motorola from the Voom days.

Is there any way, that anyone knows, to use either of these cards to record HD from the Starchoice receiver, or will I be limited to OTA HD recording only?

Reason for asking - the cards are on a drastic price reduction in my area this week.

thanks

[BFisher]

I think bottom line is that generally speaking, if you have a STB, there is no way to record HD (short of the R5000 upgrade, etc.). If you can get OTA HD, that works. Or if you can get clear QAM via cable, that works.

[tvmaster2]

so cable stb's pass QAM, but satellite stb's don't?

[ke6guj]

no, cable stb's don't pass QAM, we tune QAM straight off the coax before it gets to an STB.

[tvmaster2]

ah, now it makes sense - because I kept seeing posts relating to cable STB's, and couldn't quite grasp the concept.

now the only battle is encryption of that raw feed via your local cable company, correct?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

now the only battle is encryption of that raw feed via your local cable company, correct?

Yup, for QAM tuning, it is either an open QAM signal (mainly locals and some "free" digital channels) or an encrypted QAM signal (everything else, no point in charging for extra tiers if everything could be tuned with a QAM tuner).

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

ah, now it makes sense - because I kept seeing posts relating to cable STB's, and couldn't quite grasp the concept.

now the only battle is encryption of that raw feed via your local cable company, correct?

They were probably talking about the firewire hack. Some of the cable STBs can feed the de-scrambled programs through the firewire port on the back. With some work Sage can be set up to control and record these feeds. Even then you still only get programs that haven't been copy protected by the cable company.

[tvmaster2]

so on a different note then, since the only way either of these cards will be of any use to me . . . is for a) OTA HD, or b) an improvement in analog.

so, the question for anyone who may know and has used both . . .

do either of the 1600 or 1800 produce better analog results out of
their s-video jack than the 150 does? I have never been all that impressed
with the overall quality of the 150, but it works and is reliable.

If the 1600 or 1800 does analog NTSC better, then that would be something.

[BFisher]

Not to hijack this thread - but is there an advantage between 1600 and 1800 other than PCI-e vs PCI? I have slots of both types free... so is there a reason to get one versus the other?

[tvmaster2]

Don't mind the hijack as long as there are good answers.

So, does anyone who own either of these cards think that their
analog s-video is superior to the hauppauge 150 series?

thanks - sale ends today (tuesday)

[SHS]

I think 1800 produce tab better analog picture than the PVR 150 and HVR 1600 but like things it boil down to input PQ