Time to upgrade? (tuner + cable box?)

[iamnaeth]

Hey all!

I built my Raid server 2 years ago for recording TV (obviously) and streaming the it out around my condo. That server has either a hauppage 150 or 250, I can't remember. I use to to record basic cable and is not hooked up to digital cable box. If I wanted to upgrade or add another tuner card to connect to a cable box, what is the best option out there now? Also, is it painless to hookup to a cable box? Thanks in advance!

Nathan

[iamnaeth]

Anyone?

[ke6guj]

If you are going to hook up a cable box, then pretty much any of the analog tuner cards will do just fine. Hook it up with the s-video or composite cabels from the STB to the tuner for the best signal. If you have to use coax from the STB to the tuner, stay away from the hauppauge pvr-500 dual tuner card right now, unless you can be certain to get the older tuner style. If you need a dual tuner, then the nVidia dual tuner card may be a better choice right now.

Hooking up the STB to get the signal to the the tuner is easy, it is getting Sage to contol the channel changes on the STB that can be difficult sometimes. Your main options are to use an IR blaster, serial tuning or firewire tuning (the last two require STB's with that capability).

Do you have IR blasting capability right now? Using the haupauge remote with your existing card. IF so, that blaster should be able to configured to tune a new STB. Or do you have a USB-UIRT? That unit has IR blasting capabilities as well.

[iamnaeth]

Well, I have a spare USBUIRT laying around actually. So if got a cable box and wanted to hook up the tuner via the coax cable I should go with the Nvidia tuner? Do you happen to have link to the product?

[ke6guj]

I think just about any tuner at this link would be a supported tuner under Sage and work for you. http://www.pcalchemy.com/index.php/c...cardstv-tuners . I haven't heard of any problems coax tuning on any of the single tuners, just on the PVR-500 dual tuner. That's why I said to go nVIdia if you need a dual tuner card.

DId you want a dual tuner card? to either replace the existing card, or to add in for a total of 3 tuners?

The nVIdia tuner looks good, http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_inf...cardstv-tuners. It got some workaround support from Sage recently to fix an nVIdia bug, and it looks like nVidia may be finally coming out with drivers that support more than one card. Now, if you are planning on hooking up the STB via coax, I don't think you would be able to use the second tuner on the nVidia card via straight cable'd coax. In that case, you'd probably be better off setting up your existing card to capture the STB and have the new dual-tuner card tune 2 cable channels right off the coax.