sager 2090 tv tuner card...is it futureproof(hdtv support)?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Of not, do you guys know of any good internal or external tv tuners? Another reason for this question is that I don't know if I want to wait for the tv tuner to come in for my laptop before its shipped...hopefully soon.

 

No, the built in tuner that you can order with the 2090 or the IFL90 is analog. If you want a true HDTV tuner that can recieve HDTV programing from your cable provider you will need one that supports HDTV AND QAM ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_tuner ). You also need it to be external. There are only like 2 or 3 tuners out there that can meet all these requirements. The best one is the OnAir-GT:
http://www.autumnwave.com/Consumer/OnAir-GT.html and http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/onairusbhdtvgt.html

 

there's like a $20.00 price difference ordering at hdtvinfo and autumnwave...

 

what do you think about this model
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=116904

 

That tuner... it supports QAM? Doesn't show that it does on its site, although I might be missing where it says if it does.

EDIT: Nevermind. I'll be ordering one next week

 

Can't touch the Autumnwave one...here's what the rep told me for comparsion sake:

1. The OnAir HDTV GT is the 3rd in a very good line of OnAir Solution products. In 2003, the world's first USB 2.0 HDTV device was debutted in the United States by OnAir Solution. Next came the 'Creator', and now the 'GT'. All three of these devices are quality products, and any other 'competing' products are really not comparable to the OnAir family of HDTV tuners.

The quality of the hardware within the GT is not mediocre. Its quality surpasses any silicon-based tuner, such as the Hauppauge. We pride ourselves in selling a device that meets and exceeds expectations for an HDTV tuner. (Often, it is a person's first experience to the extraordinary HDTV world!) We want to ensure that when a customer purchases any of our OnAir products, that they are not buying something with inferior hardware or software.

2. OnAir Solution holds multiple patents to the technology responsible for streaming HDTV over USB. Other companies have tried to duplicate the success of OnAir Solution, but they've been largely unsuccessful. (This is especially true in the global market, not just in the United States.)

3. AutumnWave is the North American presence of OnAir Solution. This means North American (namely United States) customers have access to U.S. based customer service and technical support. AutumnWave's reach is expanding rapidly... something 'competitors' have a difficult time doing without a dedicated U.S. presence.

4. Software updates are frequent for OnAir Solution products. Look at the various manufacturer websites (including AutumnWave ) and notice the date of updates. OnAir Solution / AutumnWave updates the OnAir software roughly once a month, which exceeds the average for most software.

5. Other tuner products fail to include the nVidia PureVideo Decoder, which is among the best decoders available in the industry. The included PureVideo license alone makes up for any cost difference.

Let's compare the OnAir features side-by-side with THEIR tuner:

1. Their tuner does not tune unencrypted Digital Cable (QAM) -- The OnAir GT does.
2. The GT is built using the LG 5th gen tuner. Theirs uses a cheap silicon-based solution
3. Our remote has many more features
4. We include a removable antenna.
5. We include a really cool "OnAir HDTV Program", which allows you to record, Timeshift, and of course Watch HDTV. you can also watch & record Analog TV.

 

Where are you ordering from Romanian?

 

http://www.buy.com/prod/onair-gt-mobile-hdtv-receiver-dvr-for-pc/q/loc/101/202493924.html

 

bboy850, I have no idea. I first need to get my paycheck. After I get it, I'll decide where I'll buy. The 15th can't come soon enough In the meantine, have any places which accept PayPal without a credit card added onto it? TigerDirect is the only place I know of which allows this.

EDIT: Probably that hdtvtuner.com place.

 

Actually the link on hdtvtuner.com goes to buy.com...which is selling the cheapest @$159.00 and free shipping.

 

Hi bboy850 and everyone else!

This is Ryan Pertusio from AutumnWave. I spoke to you (bboy850) via email. If anyone has further questions or needs assistance, please feel free to PM, email ([email protected]), or post a reply to the thread.

Have a good one!
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

 

I'm kind of disappointed that the OnAir GT doesn't have hardware encoding for analog, the majority of channels are analog and I don't want to have to spike my cpu usage just to watch or record analog TV shows. I guess I'll be going with one that is strictly made for analog and just skip HDTV altogether.

 

Hi mixxster,
AutumnWave also makes a tuner with a hardware encoder ( OnAir Creator.) However, it uses an AC adapter to draw power, so it isn't a portable option.

There are way too many tuners out there (with hardware encoders) that are drawing too much power. This can damage your notebook! If it is a USB powered or PCMCIA powered tuner, hardware encoding (without a wall adapter) will push it over the power specs on your laptop.

The OnAir GT could have included a hardware encoder, but we decided to NOT include it to stay within power specifications. (Other tuners out there will exceed the 500mA per USB port limit.) The OnAir GT peaks at 460mA, a safe distance from the 500mA limit.

I am not going to stop you from buying other tuners, but be sure to look into the possible side-effects of having a hardware encoder onboard (without an external power supply.)

Thanks!
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

 

Thanks Mix, for saving me the research time, this is exactly what I was looking for! Sorry it wasn't a good fit for you, but I'm glad you mentioned it here.

Ordered one today, and I'll come back and let you guys know how it's doing if I can remember. I'll be hotel hopping for work for at least three months starting in September, so if anyone stumbles on this later, just PM and remind me.

Plenty of good reviews out there on Google too that answered what remained of my questions.

Thanks again Mix for the input.

 

Yeah I definitely don't need a portable option. But that $250 price tag is about $100 over what I was looking for. I guess I'll keep shopping around for an analog only tuner.

 

I'm waiting for a tuner that let's you attach a usb hdd or flash drive, kind of like TIVO without the monthly fees.

 

Ryan,

Do you plan on making a mini PCI HDTV card in the near future? How about power draw on the mini PCI bus?

Thanks,
Wu Jen

 

Baconfat,
Well, some of our customers do something similar. They use an external (USB) HDD connected to their notebook, and simply set the OnAir HDTV Program to save the HD or Analog recordings to the external HDD.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Wu Jen,
I am not at liberty to mention future products, unfortunately. Regarding power draw, Mini-PCI maximum power consumption must be under 375mA, I believe. (USB allows up to 500mA. The GT uses a max of ~460mA.) You could design a tuner that doesn't draw much power, but you'd have to make it a silicon-based tuner instead of a 'real' tuner like the LG 5th gen. You'd get a mini-PCI tuner, but at the expense of quality & performance.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Thanks,
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

 

If you use an external hdd, does the data completely bypass the internal laptop hdd? Or will the internal hdd still be constantly in use due to the decoding?
I would still like to see a device that can act independently of the laptop. Would pay a nice premium for it

 

I'm also interested in a tuner that doesn't require a computer. I would like to be able to use my LCD screen as a TV without having to hook up my notebook to it. Does anyone have experience with this?

 

Baconfat,
Good question! If you were viewing NBC (for example) and have recordings got your external hard drive... the stream would bypass your internal HDD and record to your external HDD.

The only time it would touch your internal HDD is if you turned on the 'Timeshifting' feature (Pause/Resume Digital TV). *But* even then, you can separately have the Timeshifting temporary files saved on your external drive as well. (In other words, if you really wanted to avoid using your internal HDD completely, you can set all the options to point to your external drive.)


Thanks,
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

 

I just wanted to add one more comment. If you decide to use your external HDD (with the OnAir GT or other tuner) on Vista, you can boost the performance of the drive. By default, Vista will turn off 'caching' on the drive, which slows the drive performance down. (It is off by default so that people who yank out the cable don't lose their data.) If you turn ON caching, you'll see some improvement!

Right-click your drive (in 'Computer'), and view the Properties. On the 'Hardware' tab, view the Properties on your external drive. The [Policies] tab should help you decide between 'Optimize for quick removal' and 'Optimize for performance'.

Hope that helps!

- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

 

Thanks Ryan. I read somewhere that Microsoft thought about this issue and made Media Center (XP and Vista?) offload some of the encoding work to the gfx card. If that's the case, and it works well, then I guess I won't need an onboard encoder. Does anyone have experience with this?

Right now this is looking like the best deal: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8040817&st=pinnacle+hdtv&type=product&id=1157068455221

 

Hi Baconfat,
Let me clarify 'encoding' and 'decoding'. When an Analog signal is converted to Digital, it is called 'Encoding'. All Analog tuners require an encoder. The only difference is if the encoder is on a 'chip' on the device, or if it is piece of software on your computer. (If it is a 'chip' on the device, it's a hardware encoder.)

When your computer needs to put the video on your screen (and send audio out of your speakers), it is 'Decoding'. If you have a good 'decoder', it will accelerate the video (and offload decoding work to the graphics card.)

Now, we (AutumnWave/OnAir) recognized that performance is a key issue. So, we included a license to the 'nVidia PureVideo Decoder' with our tuners. The PureVideo decoder accelerates video better than any others, and is recognized as one of the best decoder in the industry!

In Media Center (XP/2005), you could use the nVidia PureVideo Decoder and accelerate video. But, Microsoft's Vista Media Center uses its own decoder, which is reported to *not* accelerate video. (It isn't easy to change to a different decoder without 3rd party utilities.)

I'm not going to prevent you from trying the Pinnacle, but if you need (1) improved reception, (2) better performance (efficient video acceleration), (3) flexibility to receive unencrypted Digital Cable, or other features, then consider the OnAir GT. (I don't mean it to sound like a sales pitch. We have lots of former Pinnacle owners satisfied with our tuners.)

Watching HDTV on your PC is great! I hope you'll be able to find a tuner that works well for you. (I loved my OnAir tuner so much that I decided to work for the company. )

- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/