Final Words
A TV Tuner card is a nice addition to any multimedia PC, and the NVIDIA DualTV MCE is a cut above most tuners because of its ability to record two sources at once. We especially like the fact that they do the signal splitting internally, rather than having two CATV inputs. The card is easy to install and sets up in a few minutes with Windows MCE. Of course, part of the advantage is that MCE practically sets itself up by auto scanning for the TV signal and then downloading the program guide for your specific area and cable service, letting you watch and record your favorite shows in no time.Not only is it nice to be able to record and archive as much video as your hard drive will allow, but having control over details like video quality are nice as well. On top of this, with a PC TV Tuner, the video that you capture can be edited and manipulated in limitless ways for projects ranging from home movies, show movie montages for creative purposes, or simply editing out commercials or unwanted scenes from your recordings. You can also burn the completed content to a DVD if you so choose. This is something that is just not possible with a service like TiVo, at least not without using a PC to do all the extra stuff.
Something we see as a bit of a drawback is that the DualTV MCE is marketed towards Windows XP MCE users to fully realize the card's potential, and you will need to purchase this version of Windows separately. However, the DualTV MCE does work with free (and not so free) TV tuner applications like SageTV, BeyondTV and Yahoo Go! for those without Windows MCE. The fact that the DualTV MCE is only marketed toward people with the Windows MCE is a bit odd, and we feel that they should perhaps offer a bundle package with the card and MCE, and even better would be the inclusion of a standalone application for viewing/recording in other versions of Windows.
As always, price will play a big role in which TV tuner is right for you, so lets look at this aspect for a moment. Right now, the DualTV MCE is being offered at the list price of $169 on the NVIDIA store website. This about twice as much as the ATI Theater 550 Pro, which is on the market for around $80. You could technically have two of these cards installed and recording at the same time to simulate what the DualTV MCE does, but it may be less than practical given the space it would take up on your motherboard (especially if building a small HTPC box). The Theater 550 Pro is an excellent TV tuner solution for those only needing to record one channel at a time, but we think the freedom of being able to record/watch an extra source makes the DualTV MCE worth the extra money.
For those who want to do some gaming but don't want any extra PCI slots used up in their system, one of ATI's AIW cards might be the right choice. The prices range from about $100 to $400 depending on what kind of graphics performance you want, but you will still only be able to record a single TV signal with these cards. You also run into the potential problem of losing the TV recording aspect if you have to upgrade your graphics card -- and given the rate at which GPUs are updated, that will probably happen within 18 months or less.
Separate TV tuner cards will ultimately be more versatile than an AIW when building a multimedia system, because they can be used in both gaming and non-gaming systems. This fact along with the dual recording capabilities of the NVIDIA DualTV MCE make it one of the best choices for those interested in buying a high quality TV tuner solution, especially for those with Windows MCE. About the only other competing dual-tuner solution we'd consider right now is the Hauppauge PVR-500. In terms of cost, online prices are slightly cheaper than the DualTV, but we expect similar pricing from the NVIDIA card once it hits the retail market, and at that point it's basically a tossup.
It's nice to know that there are alternatives to the cable companies' standard recording "services" like TiVo. These TV tuner cards provide the same service with more flexibility for those with computers, without an added monthly subscription fee. We predict that more people will be interested in integrating their TV and PC in the future, and cards like the NVIDIA DualTV MCE make this an attractive prospect for PC owners in the present.
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hondaman - Friday, May 19, 2006 - link
FIRST thing I thought. Pretty bad review by AT standards.How does live tv look compared to REAL live tv, i.e. tv plugged right into your sat/cable reciever?
Where is the defacto standard for tv capture cards, the hauppauge? Why is this card not compared?
Will it run in linux based pvrs, and what are the tradeoffs? Is there any windows-only software that makes this card better, and isnt available for linux users, thus making it a bad choice for us?
Need WAY WAY WAY more info! Come on AT! You can do better than this!
stmok - Saturday, May 20, 2006 - link
Knowing how Nvidia acts in regards to open-source in general, I seriously doubt this solution works in Linux. You're better off getting a Hauppauge card that is well known for Linux support.As for the article itself? (I'd have to agree with the others).
(1) Where the heck is CPU usage graphs?
(2) It would be wiser if you capture from the same show with the different cards, so we can compare quality.
(3) How does it compare to those Haupauge products?
(4) Support for other OSs? (We ain't all Windows users!)
(5) I am curious of the power consumption of capture cards...How much power do they burn?
micsaund - Friday, May 19, 2006 - link
Also: "...all three of these cards use silicone tuners..."It's "silicon" -- silicone is used in completely different applications, some of which I'm sure I don't have to elaborate on ;)
guste - Friday, May 19, 2006 - link
I'm a bit disappointed as well, but not surprised. Anandtech has it's strong areas and weak areas and this is definitely one of the weaker areas. Not a big knock against the site though, as this kind of thing isn't it's bread and butter.Anyway, I was hoping to get some more data, since I currently run two Theatre 550 Pros in my MCE box and wanted to see what the CPU utilization characteristics of the nVidia dual tuner solution are. The 550 Pros are a flawless solution, other than the fact that they take two slots, so it would have helped to get a thorough review to see if it was worth it to upgrade.
DukeTogo - Friday, May 19, 2006 - link
Ditto, I wanted to like this article but...I thought it was over the top to jump on the 550 cards for only have one tuner.
As noted, not a problem - install two. We run 2 x Sapphire Theatrix 550's and they are great. If you can get the "Lite version" (ie. no remote) it's extra savings over the one with the IR remote or the ATI Elite version with the RF remote. Then you just use your MCE remote, assuming you use MCE.
I was interested in the power consumption. Subtracting off the 145W base, it seems that each config uses: (warning: validity?) I doubled the 550 solution for the case where one uses two cards.
From the article (-145W)
Idle Watch Record
NVIDIA 17 34 44
550 14 25 30
550x2 28? 50? 60?
I do own a PowerAngel so I could probably validate the 550 figures given the time on the weekend.
I'd be interested in heat output as well. Does one Nvidia card produce less heat than 2 550's ? I would assume so, but...
The channel change times was interesting, though not perhaps all that relevant if you use an IR blaster to an external set-top box. Probably only matters to those with a direct cable feed?
I'd also be very interested in an analysis of MediaSqueeze.
cpu? disk space? quality? interface/settings ? etc
Hoping to see a Part II for this article with some of the info people want to see.
mindless1 - Saturday, May 20, 2006 - link
Something looks wrong with those numbers, a card that doesn't have MPEG2 encoding should cause a larger difference between idle (watching) and recording because it's taking the CPU out of HALT state quite a bit.Trisped - Sunday, May 21, 2006 - link
That would only be true if the card was compressing the data stream so it could be sent to the video card to be decompressed. With an AIW card the data is sent strait from the tuner to the GPU, and never has to leave the board. Otherwise they would have built in a converter so it wouldn't cripple your system bus when sending the data between cards.mindless1 - Sunday, May 21, 2006 - link
No, it would be true.IF the card does not have hardware compression, AND the video is being recorded to a compressed format, THEN the CPU _MUST_ being encountering a higher load than it otherwise would. So it is with most AIW, software MPEG2 is the default isn't it? regardless of what the default is, I think wek can presume the majority of AIW users are using a compressed format.