Question about TV Tuners.

Hi all, I ordered a DV9700t and it shipped today. I am only NOW realizing that I am going to need a TV Tuner for my Lappie. It's built with the works... 500 GB 5400 RPM HD, 4GB DDR2 Ram, Intel Penryn T9300 2.5GHZ, Nvidia 8600 GS 512mb, Blu-Ray...

Well, My question is should I buy HP's Vista ExpressCard Tuner, or their USB Tuner. Both seems capable of HD reception (I think). The USB Tuner is $30 cheaper. ALso, are there any other good Tuners out there that I should look into? I am especially interested in a Tuner that is DUAL TUNER capable. That would be a HUGE PLUS!!! ANY help would be appreciated.

 

With 100 posts one would think you have seen posts like the 2 below!!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=216779

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=162024&highlight=TV+Tuner

 

Sorry, Jeesh, no need to be rude. I was looking tobuy today... So, instead of searching first, I just asked.

 

Its cool I do the same thing at times. I have the HP tuner and it is nothing special! I wish I had a usb tuner!

 

May I ask why? Doesn't the express card tuner allow faster data transfers than USB making HD broadcasts more smooth?

 

I have not used a USB tuner, I just have heard great things! I don't like the location of where it sticks out of my lappy and it gets hot and that worries me. I have not had any issues with the playback! I just think I would like the usb style better as long as the video quality is at least as good!

 

Check the WinTV-HVR-1500 and the Avermedia HC80 out.

 

DiVCO Fusion 7 HDTV USB Tuner. Hands down, the best notebook TV tuner on the market.

 

Thanks for all of the replies guys. I take it that there are no dual tuners for laptops available? I like to record more than 1 show at times. I am considering HP's USB Tuner.

 

get 2 usb tuners , but stay away from pinnacle or ati .

 

The Hauppauge and Avermedia tuners are dual; however, they have one ATSC and one NTSC tuner in them. You can record one over-the-air digital station as well as one cable or NTSC station.

 

Check your pm.

 

If I were doing it again, I would look at the USB tuners. They probably get hot too but they sit outside of the laptop so maybe they would not heat things up as much?

>>The Hauppauge and Avermedia tuners are dual; however, they have one ATSC and one NTSC tuner in them. You can record one over-the-air digital station as well as one cable or NTSC station.<<

Really? On a laptop with either a USB or Express card type? How do you do it?

Hauppauge makes the HP card. I believe the equivalent Hauppauge model is the 1500.

 

Not all the tuners are dual tuners. If it isn't advertised, it isn't possible.

 

The HP ones to which I was referring are both digital and analog (unless you have an old one which would just be analog).

 

The DViCO Fusion 7 USB that I mentioned does HDTV ATSC and SD NTSC. It also decodes QAM 64 and 256 digital channels from cable. And it only gets luke warm after being left on for hours. More like room temperature, so it's hard to perceive.

 

OnAir GT USB is worth a look. Not cheap but it does analog and digital for both OTA and cable. Good software and very good support too. You can plug in as many tuners as you have USB ports.

 

Guys, look closely at your HP Tuner card and you will see the words "Hauppauge Computer Works, Inc." Is this relevent? I dont know...

 

The HP card is indeed a re-branded Hauppauge HVR-1500. This one should run cooler due to software encoding whereas the Avermedia HC80 has a hardware encoder.