TV Tuners

[aleckrohto 21]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and I was wondering what TV tuners are the best. I want to record news opens to my computer. Thanks

[sanewsguy 514]

Welcome to the forum. I recommend the AverTVHD Tuner. It does an outstanding job but it only works with Windows 7 (and I assume 8 as well). I have this and have found that it works quite well and the quality is superior to cable. I would avoid Hauppauge tuners, those are a piece of crap in my opinion. Too many bad experiences and it ruined my old computer (windows XP).

http://www.amazon.com/AVerMedia-AVerTVHD-Volar-Tuner-MTVHDVMXR/dp/B001ULD71C/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1372898201&sr=8-8&keywords=avertv+usb+hd+dvr

 

As far as an indoor antenna, just get whatever. They all work the same IMO. I live on the north side of my city and the transmitters for the stations are 45 miles south of where I am so it is hard to get a signal from the ABC affiliate. The Telemundo, Univision, MyNet, and CBS affiliates NEVER come in. The NBC and Fox come in most of the time. The CW, ION, and Telefutura stations come in all the time without fail (because I'm about 15 miles from their transmitters). So proximity to the transmitter is far more important than antenna. I could get an outdoor antenna but I've never seen the need since I have cable (with too many channels I don't watch anyways).

 

Good luck!

[Evening Magazine 18]

If you have cable, most of the cable providers theses days provide a QAM signal, which is the best quality you'll find anywhere, as long as you have a decent signal coming into your Wall Outlet.

[compubit 674]

I'll throw in my 2 cents...

 

My two preferred tuners are:

- Hauppauge WinTV Aero-M : it has one of the latest tuning chips in it (talking to a broadcast engineer who is very familiar with the technology inside these), and can reliably pick up ATSC, unencrypted ATSC/M (Mobile), and unencrypted QAM. I use this with my laptop when traveling.

- Silicon Dust HD HomeRun : This one is ethernet/network based and has 2 or more tuners in it (depending on the version). There is a cable card compatible version (HD HomeRun Prime), which can be used with a Windows 7 or Windows 8 machine running Windows Media Center to capture encrypted streams (whether or not you can watch them on another device is up to the cable company).

 

I've tried a number of tuners over the years and these 2 have worked best and most reliably for me.

 

Jim