5. TV Tuners And Video Hardware

The ADS InstantHDTV TV tuner card

A Media Center PC review would not be complete without some high definition tests. Since the m7580n did not ship with a HD tuner ADS was kind enough to send me their InstantHDTV PCI card (PTV-381-EF). The InstantHDTV tuner requires a Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz processor to ensure good results. The high CPU requirement leads me to believe that the tuner is software-based meaning that it needs to offload part of the HD encoding process to the CPU. Fortunately, the dual core 4400+ is more than sufficient to meet the hardware requirements. I was pleased to see that the InstantHDTV card was as easy to install as all of the ADS products that I have used, which is to say, very easy. I was able to find and install the windows MCE compatibility plugin without any trouble. The MCE plugin is required to enable the InstantHDTV card in Windows Media Center. In preparation for this article I noticed that there are some reports hanging around on the Internet that claim that ADS HD cards are not compatible with Windows MCE. I'm pleased to say that I had absolutely no problems getting it to work. After installing the plugin, MCE recognized it without a hitch.

After installing the InstantHDTV card, I set a bunch of HD programming to record and sat back to enjoy the high def experience. The HD recordings were smooth and stutter-free even during the stress test (more on the testing later) The CPU usage while recording HD programming was surprisingly low, hovering around 20%. Considering the hardware requirements of the ADS tuner, I would have expected more of a draw on the CPU. One of the benefits of the ADS InstantHDTV tuner is that it includes an analog tuner. Both tuners can be used simultaneously to record one HD and one SD program. The included analog tuner is brought the tuners in the m7580n to three, which allowed me to record three programs at once. Not bad for an entry level HTPC.

ADS InstantHDTV remote

The InstantHDTV tuner came with an IR remote. The ADS remote is designed to be used with the included Beyond TV software and does not have the correct button configuration for Windows Media Center. For a look at the virtues of Snapstream's Beyond TV as an alternative to Windows Media Center, have a look at our review here. The remote is long and thin with rubberized buttons. It has a slightly flimsy feel, and would be difficult to navigate without looking at it. Then again, it's a free remote, so who's complaining?

The Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150

The Hauppauge tuner card is a great hardware-based single SD NTSC tuner. It has an FM radio and is one of the first TV tuners to be approved for use with Windows Media Center 2005. It is also capable of capturing video from standalone devices such as a VCR, or a camcorder I found the WinTV PVR-150 to be a solid performer. The TV captures were smooth and sharp with no visible color distortions or artifacts.

The Asus Nforce 7300LE Video card.

The Asus Nforce 7300LE had sufficient power to manage mundane needs. I found that it performed more or less as I expected from a low-end video card in the 50-60 dollar range. There was plenty of power to run the Media Center software and regular office type applications. However, I found the hardware configuration to be a disappointment for a couple of reasons. Primarily, it's actively cooled. I have seen more robust versions of this card that have been fitted a passive cooler. If you're going to put a low powered video card into a system that might find its way into someone's living room as a PVR, it's always best to use passive cooling whenever possible. My second gripe about the 7300LE is that it does not have a DVI connector. If you want to connect your m7580n to a television you are stuck with SVideo or composite video, which put out a terrible analog picture compared to a DVI connection DVI also converts easily to HDMI which is another popular TV interface. I was able to find Asus 7300LE cards that were configured with both the DVI and VGA connectors so there isn't much of an excuse to use this version.