I've been noticing the prices dropping on several of the HDTV tuner cards. My old PJ is looking a little outdated, so I'm thinking it's time to take things to the next level with a new build. I'm tossing around the idea of making a nice and tall vertical PJ, and building an HTPC into the base of it. Maybe put some casters on the thing to make it "portable". Anyway, I've been enjoying HDTV OTA for free for months now using an archaic sylvania receiver, but I'm not liking the set top box style so much anymore. I'd like to modernize it a bit, and have the ability to record and such (and my sylvania has no remote ).

So.... I've searched around a bit, and haven't found as much discussion on the actual cards as I'd expected. I'm looking at a few, what are your opinions? Here's some just for consideration...

ATI HDTV Wonder Remote Control Edition 100-714127, Retail box, $91.99

KWorld Digital/Analog HDTV Tuner PCI Card ATSC-110, Supports 1920 x 1080i, Dolby Digital AC3 Audio Output, $91

AVerMedia AVerTVHD MCE A180 PCI ATSC HDTV Card, Watch TV & Capture Video, White box, $78.99

I'd like to hear from ANYONE who has one of these cards. There's just so many questions. I'm leaning toward the avermedia right now. I like ATI and all, but I'd like to try out Linux, and I'm unsure the driver support for ATI. The K-world doesn't have a remote, that doesn't sit well with me. Issue's I'm mostly interested in are driver support for windows and linux, mythTV/sageTV compatibility, bundled software and how it works, etc. Thanks in advance.

I have a MyHDTV 130 with DVI card and it works great

I bought an ATI HDTV with DVR features at Best Buy for $120. Total Crap - took it back. Sorry I don't have the model number.

I have the avermedia and have been using it in media xp for a bit. The card initially was fair and then I put an antenna in my attic. It works great. The quality is amazing. I still hate Micorsoft though. Things are always buggy. The system doesn't turn on or off like it should. And you wonder with each new MS update if your pc will crash more or less. Again, love the avermedia card quality just keep thinking I may need to go to Myth. The picture and audio quality on OTA reception on my Sanyo HD 30" tv is superb...better than anything I ever got with directv [never had their HD though]. I am so enamored with what is possible with digital OTA that I'm considering the purchase of a cheap 20" SD tv for some $200 in my bedroom. It is simply wonderful to no longer have picture snow, jitters, etc. Long live HD. In fact, it got me thinking about the possibilities of HD radio.

I have no experience with any of these but there are other models also.

Dvico Fusion HDTV-5, remote optional
OnAir USB HDTV tuner
AirStar DH5000

The MyHD MDP-130 shotfire has gets good reviews and the decoding is done in hardware.

the latest pchdtv card is around 130 bucks and doesn't honor the broadcast flag.... and receives analog cable as well. http://www.pchdtv.com

That's the reason I was kinda leaning toward a linux build for my HTPC. I just don't think windows is trustworthy enough for a PVR. So how does the audio work? Can you send 5.1 through your normal soundcard, or are you stuck using the audio output of the HDTV card?

What does that mean that it doesn't honor the broadcast flag? I see that it does HD and SD with a single tuner, that's nice. It seems like all the others have separate tuners, and I'd rather not build two antennas or have a split attenuating my signal from a single antenna.

The broadcast flag was an attempt by the FCC ( backed by Hollywood, naturally) to lay in signal that would prevent people from recording and redistributing HD content. The plan was to have every tuner card in the US, built after a certain date, to have a controller in it that would not allow the recording process. Like Macrovision in a live stream. This card has totally omitted that chip. Therefore it is immune to the broadcast flag.

Several of the reasons I choose the "MyHD MDP-130 "

You can use a single or dual antennas.

You can either use its optical output or run it through your sound card.

PVR works fine with windows.

It will also tunes ATSC/QAM

I really haven't found anything to complain about yet.

It cost mores than some of the other cards, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

So has anyone tried the MDP-130 with Linux? I don't want one that's strictly Linux or strictly Windows, I'd like the opportunity to try both and see which OS I prefer for the HTPC. I'd hate to spend twice as much on a card if it has little things that bother me. So far it seems like a nice choice though. I just realized that the Avermedia has no hardware encoding, which I'm sad to say, is a bit of a deal breaker for me.

I'm running two Aver A180's in myth work fine. I think I'll try out one of these. No firmware to worry about and I don't need any more pci slots

HD Homerun

I'm using a couple of Air2PC cards in my PVR (don't have a home theater yet) and they work great with MythTV. The old model for ATSC (over the air) HDTV is being cleared out on eBay for $40/shipped per card. I think the ATI HDTV card is probably of similar quality. When people post things like "total crap" you gotta wonder what exactly they mean. Maybe the software sucked? I wouldn't be surprised. But how about the video?

Yeah, that tends to be a problem on most review sites. Newegg is pretty much the
only site that usually has a few useful reviews, so I always tell everyone to check
there.

I have the ATI HDTV Wonder, just got it yesterday from Buy.com for $50 after $25 rebate. So far I am happy with the purchase. I installed only the drivers needed from ATI, not their Media Center software, which I hear is like torture.

I'm running XP Pro, and I use WatchHDTV, a free, basic HDTV viewing and recording program. It works with the Remote Wonder included in the HDTV Wonder package.

I use the ATI TV Wonder 650. I like it so far. Good clean SDTV, which is what I bought it for. It can probably do unencrypted QAM HDTV as well, and OTA HDTV, but I don't have that hooked up.

The Media Center software definitely is pretty lame, but I wasn't planning on using that in the long term anyway. It was around $120 at Best Buy. I will report back when I have a better PVR software going.

I really do love the way this card cleans up SDTV broadcasts though. Makes it possible to blow it up big.

is there a way to share 2 cards with 1 antenna?

Sure, with a splitter. Available at RS, HD, etc. But it divides the signal into two outputs so each has half the power
of the input.

More feedback on the ATI Tv Wonder 650 -

I found the brightness settings! All is good. There are some different display settings at the "home" menu that are available. Things like Cinema, Vivid ... that sort of thing. Worked for me! Also, I set my output to BEST today, which really made things pop.

I am getting some intermittent odd behavior, which is fairly typical of ATI software running on weak equipment. Stuttering on startup, long load times, stuff like that. I think it is time to put some muscle in my HTPC. More later.