HD DirectTV / tuner card?

For the last three years we have been using our Media Center PC as our home entertainment system. It has a PCI tuner card that receives a signal from our Direct TV satellite box. The video card has a DVI out to our plasma monitor (our TV). The sound card sends surround sound out to a pc based home surround sound.

We would like to upgrade to HD. The monitor is capable of HD but we have been unable to find an input or tuner card that would accept a decoded HD signal from a satellite box. Is there one available now?

I would like the same capability we have now only now with HD programming.
play, pause, rewind live TV, record programming for later playback, record a series.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Connie

 

What card you get will also depend on the type of available slots on your computer's motherboard.

PCI Express x1 slots are the little (about an inch or so) long slots. Hauppauge makes this one (link is to Newegg.com) for $50- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116028 .

This one is a dual-tuner (watch one channel,record another), HD or Analog, has FM tuner, remote control, $130, also PCI Express x1 slot: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116036 .

This link takes you to the page with PCI slot HD tuner cards. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=



Read through the user reviews and maybe do a Google search too on one you're interested in.

Sam

 

Thanks for the links, Sam. However, none of those cards has an hdmi input, which is required to input decoded HD signal. I have not been able to finda tuner card with an hdmi input.

Connie

 

HDMI is used to output HD signals from a display device to a screen. In your case you need a card with a built in decoder that will accept the satellite cable directly.

 

Does one exist?
Connie

 

Cards with hardware decoders-yes. Cards w/hardware decoders that have HDMI input- I couldn't find any. Was one that had S video input.

I would suggest you find a local shop that does home theater setups and see if they have something they could suggest.

Sam