HDTV Tuner PC card. Are they any good?

I'd like to get an HDTV tuner card for my PC with recording capabilities (like I'm doing now with my ATI ALL IN WONDER card for SDTV) but I was wondering if anyone that had used any HDTV cards had any recommendations or warnings of what to get or stay away from.

I have seen video from them that was recorded. Very good quality compared to the card I have. I dont know which card recorded the episode of 24 I have, but its looks darn good. Audio is nice too. So I must say, yea, they are good.

Cameron

I might try the ATI HDTV Wonder and see if it works. I can always take it back.

I was toying with the idea of getting the ATI HD card. I've heard mixed reviews about it, so I'm still waffling over the idea. If anyone has tried one, I'd like to know their opinion.

Hi Sean,

Checkout AVS forum. They have about the best info covering all PC
HDTV cards. The thread I listed is especially for HTPC's.

I too had had that idea. Its my understanding that after July some fcc regulation kicks in and the video card manufactures can no longer offer the ability to receive hd tv through your computer. I may buy one for just that fact alone. I have no intensions myself of buying an hd tv.

Thanks for the information cobb, I did not know that. ATI has a tv tuner card using the "Theater 550" chip. I have one and it works fine although the drivers need a tweak or two. My hope was a dual tuner Theater 550 card with HDTV built in. Alas, I might be dreaming...

After July, all cards manufactured will have to support broadcast flags. The flags dictate what can be done with the video. Whether or not they can be recorded or how many times they can be recorded. This is simply a move to keep HD material off of the Internet or from being copied. Here is a good thread: AVS forum

broadcast flags? thats pretty funny, since you can spend 2 minutes googling and find software that intercepts whatever is fed by your video driver and dumps it into an mpeg. it's like those real media or wma streams that have flags that prevent them from being recorded. yet with the right software they can be recorded just fine.

the point being, anything that your computer can decode and display with a video or audio codec, or hardware. you can record.

if you can see it and hear it, there's a way to keep it. any sort of copy protection is a nuisance when it comes to computers. it's a whole 'nother story when it comes to a black box that only has a record, stop, play, ff, and rewind buttons.

Leon

i seem to had bad experience with my HDTV 6600GT card from MSI... Seemed to make my com auto restart after about 3 minutes of recording but quality is good