figmentPez
Posts: 1394
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: TX
Status: offline
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What sources are you going to record from? That makes a big difference in what you want to buy.
Broadcast (digital): As long as you've already got an antenna of sufficient size, all you should need is a good card that has a digital ATSC tuner (Hauppage makes the best, by most accounts, but others make quality products as well) and a coaxial cable to connect it to the antenna.
Cable (analog, SD): If all you want to tape is analog cable stations, then almost any card will do, as pretty much all have an NTSC tuner.
Cable (unencrypted digital clear-QAM, SD/HD): This is kind of a fuzzy area. Different cable companies offer different stations unencrypted. For instance, last I checked, my cable company offers Food Network in HD, unencrypted, but other stations like G4 and Disney can't be tuned without a cable box/card. Not all computer cards offer QAM tuners, and it can be really really difficult to figure out what channels you'll have access to without actually plugging in a TV or tuner card and checking for yourself. You'll also need Windows Vista with a special patch if you want to use Windows Media Center to view QAM channels, though Linux support is also possible.
Cable (encrypted digital, SD/HD): Right now the only legal way to use a cable card with a PC is to buy a completely new computer that comes with a special tuner. However, this is scheduled to change, hopefully soon. If and when this happens, you'll need one of the new cable card ready tuners, a cable card from your cable company (good luck, even though they're legally required to offer them, they aren't happy about supporting them), Windows 7 or possibly Vista, and a lot of prayer that you can actually get the cable card set up and working (cable companies make more money renting cable boxes than can do on-demand, so they don't work very hard to make cable cards work).
Satellite (SD): It's not hard to connect a satellite box to the S-video input on a tuner card, but it's harder to set up the computer to automatically change the channels on the satellite box. I don't know how to do this. You'd probably need to find an enthusiast forum for DIY DVRs.
Satellite (HD): This is possible, since there are a very few tuner cards out there that have component inputs and can accept an HD signal that way, but those cards are more expensive than other models ($200 up to thousands). Again, you have the problem of switching channels on the satellite box.
Then you've got to choose your operating system, depending on what your level of tech skill is, and what options you're limited to based on the type of TV signal you're trying to capture.
You'll also need to consider how many channels you'll want to tune at the same time. Some cards offer 2 or more tuners, but others offer only one. If you only have a single tuner, you won't be able to record and watch at the same time, and some dual-tuners are one analog and one digital, so you'll be limited to a single HD program (watching or recording). If you really want to spend the money, it's possible to put multiple cards into a single system, or link multiple computers in a network, but I'm assuming you're trying to save money versus renting a DVR from your TV provider (which may not be possible, in the short run).
< Message edited by figmentPez -- 11/1/2009 3:55:35 PM >
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