Advice on PCI TV tuner cards

I am looking for advice on purchasing a TV PCI tuner card. I’m interested in a card that pauses live TV and has a VCR with a scheduler for those times when you know you won’t be around to record a show. I’ve looked at the ATI HDTV Wonder PCI TV Tuner but not sure if I really need the HDTV capability. Another choice was the Pinnacle PCTV MediaCenter (thw- March 4, 2005) but found other mixed reviews on the item. I’m sure my system will handle any additional processor stress the software may throw at it. Thanks.


OS: XP pro sp2
Case: Lian Li PC-65 Aluminum ATX
Motherboard: Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Processor: Intel Pentium 4HT 3.0GHz (overclock: 3.6GHz)
Chipset: Intel Canterwood i875P
FBS: 800MHz
System memory: 2GB Dual DDR
Video Adapter: ASUS Radeon A9600XT (128MB)
Montior: Viewsonic VX924 19in LCD Monitor
Disk Drive: ASUS dvd-rw, Liteon dvd rom
HD: WDC 200GB x4
Driver: Promise 2X2 Mirror/Raid1 (0+1)

As was said, most of the Hauppauge TV cards are quite good. Hauppauge has been doing TV tuners for a long time, and I think they've got it worked out great.
As for high def TV, that's not a bad way to go either. Avermedia, like Hauppauge, has been doing this stuff for a long time. They just announced that it has new drivers for its AverTVHD MCE A180 HD tuner which will permit this card to work in a plain Windows XP box. In other words, the A180 is no longer solely a Windows MCE part.
Also, the new drivers for the A180 allows two A180s to work in WMCE (dual tuner support).

I just bought the Hauppauge 150 pvr on sale for $80.00 from circuit city. I've had it for about a week and am VERY impressed with its abilities. It's my first pvr card, but I can't imagine a better value. I'd say compare the Hauppauge 150, 250 and 350 for features and pick one of those; you can't go wrong.


http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oi [...] ew.do#tabs