Tuner card for HDTV?

[torin3]

I'm getting a 22" widescreen LCD monitor for my PC in a few days and was going to be getting a dish to plug into it. I would like to get the best card I to use as a tuner/capture card.

Looking through Newegg, there weren't nearly as many HDTV tuner cards as I remembered from about 6-8 months ago. All the ones I could find were software encoding rather than hardware, and didn't have very good reviews from users.

Any suggestions on where to go and which ones to get?

I'd like to keep it under $150 if possible, but not a hard limit.

Thanks!

[Bios24]

HD is still uncharted territory for HTPC's. Are you going to be using a seperate front end software or just what they include with the card? Do you need/want a remote? I know ATI is pretty popular and they have a package that includes card/remote/software/antenna.

[LandShark]

I'm using a Fusion5HDTV Lite and loving it!!

here's a camera shot of a previously recorded football game. (it looks a lot better in person since I have to resize and compress it for the web and my camera skill isn't the best.)

http://landshark-racing.com/pics/htpc/1.jpg

http://landshark-racing.com/pics/htpc/2.jpg

http://landshark-racing.com/pics/htpc/3.jpg

[torin3]

I'm using a Fusion5HDTV Lite and loving it!!

here's a camera shot of a previously recorded football game. (it looks a lot better in person since I have to resize and compress it for the web and my camera skill isn't the best.)

http://landshark-racing.com/pics/htpc/1.jpg

http://landshark-racing.com/pics/htpc/2.jpg

http://landshark-racing.com/pics/htpc/3.jpg

Pics didn't make it through.

Took a little bit of google-fu to find them, but it looks like it might be what I want. I might go for the Gold rather than the Lite since it has S-video input, and I have a camcorder that has that output. It also has firewire, but I haven't had much luck finding utilities to use that on a windows machine.

Thanks! :D

[torin3]

Well, I just found out today that it won't really work for what I'm planning. I was going to be getting Dish/DirecTV, and they have HDCP, so it won't capture their content. I'll have to get a HDMI to DVI-D cable and use it directly as a monitor. I'm far enough away from most TV-station transmitters, I'd need a hefty antenna to get a consistant signal.

Plus the shows I like watching are pay-type chanels.

Thanks for the suggestions though, the pictures are fantastic.

[LandShark]

Well, I just found out today that it won't really work for what I'm planning. I was going to be getting Dish/DirecTV, and they have HDCP, so it won't capture their content. I'll have to get a HDMI to DVI-D cable and use it directly as a monitor. I'm far enough away from most TV-station transmitters, I'd need a hefty antenna to get a consistant signal.

Plus the shows I like watching are pay-type chanels.

Thanks for the suggestions though, the pictures are fantastic.
oh, no. there's NO HD tuner card in exist for cable/directv set top box at all! in fact, the minute when it's out, it will get shut down in no time!! therefore, you can only capture the free off the air HD channel.