HD tuner recommendations?

[geeeeoffff]

So, i've had an 'HD Ready' tv for quite a while, and i've just been watching analog cable on it up till now. My TV has component inputs so i need a box that i can connect an Antenna to and it will output 720p video through the component cable.

i keep looking around on amazon, and i'm finding a lot of digital converter boxes, but they only output SD video.

It looks like a lot of DVD recorders have built in tuners but i really don't care about the dvd recording part of the box.

any recommendations?

[edDV]

Strange with all the Feb 17, 2009 hoopla, HD Ready folk are being ignored. I'm one.

The list of choices has reduced and prices haven't come down much but the models remaining are better.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=179095
Scroll down to "Over The Air".

My recommendation is the Samsung DTB-H260F $179 ATSC, w/Clear QAM for cable as well. Samsung is one of the few major companies making improved models for this "HD Ready" market and their products are top notch.

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/h260f.html

[Nelson37]

Have had the Samsung box for about 6 months now. Very happy with it, no major issues.

[usually_quiet]

I was browsing at Newegg a few days ago and saw that K-World has come out with two converter boxes with an ATSC/QAM tuner that are capable of HD and SD output. (Of course with those features, the government coupon can't be applied towards the purchase.)

According to the specs and customer reviews, there are some issues and limitations with both boxes. Even so, they might be good enough for some people with an HD-ready TV who don't like the price asked for an external tuner with all the bells and whistles.

Here are the links:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815260022
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815260021

[ZedVamp]

Does anyone know of a card that could be used with a laptop? My laptop is a couple years old, but has pretty nice specs (just posting so you know what will work with my machine):

>OS: Vista, XP, Linux
>Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.6Ghz
>2GB Ram
>Internal HD: 160GB 7200rpm (single 160Gig partition)
>External HD: 250GB 7200rpm (single 250Gig partition)
>External HD2: 500GB 7200rpm (single 500Gig partition)
>External HD3: 500GB 7200rpm (single 500Gig partition)
>Network HD1: 560GB 7200rpm (My other computer, single partition)
>LCD: 1280x720
>Ports: 4 USB ports, 1 Lan, 1 phone, 1 S-Video out, 1 Monitor out, 1 stereo headphone jack, 1 microphone jack, 1 PC Card slot -can be rigged for two, though-, 5in1 Card slot -SD, MS, etc-, firewire -4 and 6 pin-
>Video Card: Intel GFX 9800 (Something like that, it's integrated)
>Internal Optical Drive: 8x DVD-RW
>External Optical Drive: 20x DVD-RW
>Network Optical drives: 8x and 16x DVD-RW

Anyway, that's my setup


EDIT: Also have an iMac Desktop: This particular one is the first model with an intel processor (512mb ram, 200Gig HD, 20" Display, integrated graphics, 8xDVD-RW)

[edDV]

Capture what?

There are ATSC/QAM tuner cards and ATSC/QAM usb tuner sticks but not for HD baseband "capture". For that you need a Hauppauge HD-PVR which captures off the analog components of a cable/sat box.

USB2 HD tuner sticks
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_external.html
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV/PCTV/

also Avermedia, K-World

[ZedVamp]

I have never done this before and I don't really know anything about it.

I am trying to capture HD DIGITAL TeleVision (Exclusive standard for 2009).

I do not want to capture analog, I want to capture digital. (I do not necessarily want to save the digital signal as it is broadcast. More like, I would like to stream it to VirtualDub to save it to disk before recompression)

What is "baseband" compression. Excuse my ignorance, you seem much more knowledgable than I.

[edDV]

Reception of digital over the air broadcasting requires a digital tuner. Standards vary around the world*. In North America this would be MPeg2/AC3 modulated ATSC (aka 8VSB**) for over the air or 256-QAM*** over cable. Not all ATSC tuners work for QAM. Study the specs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSC

Multiplexed MPeg transport streams (TS) are used for ATSC broadcasting. This allows multiple TV program subchannels to be broadcast on a single ATSC 6MHz RF channel. For example, in many communities the PBS main channel is 720p plus an additional two or three 480i subchannels (e.g. KQED-DT 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4).

Most ATSC/QAM computer tuners simply pass the tuned 3-19Mb/s MPeg subchannel stream to disk without decode or transcode. The resulting file takes between 1.5 to 9.5 GB/hr depending on how it was encoded.

1080i ~ 10 to 19 Mb/s
720p ~10 to 19 Mb/s
480i ~1.5 to 4 Mb/s

The Hauppauge HD-PVR hardware transcodes to h.264 but that isn't a tuner.


* Europe and much of the PAL world use DVB modulation.

** ATSC passes ~19Mb/s in a 6MHz RF channel
*** 256-QAM is good for ~38.8Mb/s in a 6MHz RF Channel.

[ZedVamp]

Than you for clearing that up. I'm starting to see the light.