Re: HD Tv cards and 2 tuners or 3 cards,PIP What are the real options.

Tech-Archive recommends: Speed Up your PC by fixing your registry

From: Michael Creasy [MSFT] (mcreasy_at_online.microsoft.com)
Date: 01/28/05


Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 10:52:46 -0800

You can have up to 3 tuners. Two must be "regular" NTSC tuners, these will
be used for cable/satellite. The third tuner has to be an Over-The-Air
(OTA) ATSC tuner.
That accounts for the tuner cards, you'll also need a high powered video
(graphics) card which is what will connect to the TV.

Media Center doesn't do any Picture in Picture features.

-- 
Michael Creasy [MSFT] - http://blogs.msdn.com/mcreasy
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
"Gary L Greco" <garylgreco@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:D388E9E5-8A18-436E-A5F7-3F983857A212@microsoft.com...
>I have heard or read that we can use up to 3 video cards in an MCE 
>computer.
> With HD being both available through what I call "unwired or rabbit ears" 
> and
> cable or direct tv sources, I have a couple people wanting to watch or 
> record
> HD tv while watching another channel.
> Know if my mind is seeing this right we can put 2 TV cards in to capture
> signals, and one Video out to the TV.
> Is this correct?
>
> So would we be able to have picture in a picture type of display option in
> any type of configuration?
>
> Or would that be strictly produced by the TV with 2 tuners in it?
>
> And I see only one at present time HD card from ATI available, has anyone
> used or heard of any other cards tha have come to market?
> I am looking into building just theater type systems or entertainment
> centers with MCE and some really good sound systems. I have the MCE system 
> we
> built from the Roadshow and want to first get my options straightened out
> ,and find what is really going to work without wasting a large amount of 
> time
> or money so any input will be useful on how I proceed.Thanks in 
> advance:)))
>
> Sorry for the questions in one post just dont want to waste posting space 
> in
> the forum.
> -- 
> Gary L Greco 


Relevant Pages

  • Hauppauge PVR500 MCE Troubleshooting Tips
    ... I re-ran the TV setup in MCE 2005. ... Tuners and the dual recording and watching TV worked as it should. ... I had to select one of the tuner cards and then configure it ... remnants in the registry that prohibited the successful install of the PVR500 ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: What HD Tuner used in Development of MCE2005
    ... Microsoft only recommends 512MB of memory when using HDTV tuners with MCE ... >> This is a brand new setup and yes installing the AverMedia cards couldn't ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Building a HTPC with MCE2005
    ... Good point on the limited expandability of the Shuttle SFF. ... I've currently got 2 tuners in my Beyond TV box, ... >because the video graphics card does a lot of stuff in a WMCE box. ... the latest models cards from Nvidia and ATI ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Two Tuners, Different Quality Installed
    ... MCE requires tuners with hardware MPEG encoding. ... Yes, there are some drivers that can make these cards work at some level, but it's a kludge, and if you read posts from people who are trying to use these products in that manner, they have LOTS of problems and issues, and it just isn't a clean or fully functional way to setup a system. ... AIW 9800 is not recognized or supported by MCE to begin with, so as far as MCE is concerned, you only have one tuner anyway, and it's the one in the TV Wonder Elite. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: WinTV 401 with RH8.0 and xawtv
    ... WinTV 401 with RH8.0 and xawtv's a cool scene! ... The following is an exerpt from the file "cards" (in the bttv ... different tuners, teletext decoders. ... Dig the even newer still, yet more improved, sig! ...
    (alt.os.linux.redhat)