Avertv Combo PCIE(M780) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This product replaces a Hauppaugge PVR-150 in my HTPC. The quality on analog signals is significantly better, and adds the ability to receive digital signals. You can use both tuners at the same time via picture-in-picture, or watch one tuner while recording on the other.
The analog tuner (NTSC) has input for coax or S-Video. If you use s-video, the audio is received by an adapter that plugs into a mini-jack just below it.
The digital tuner is for receiving ATSC (OTA) or QAM (cable) signals. It only has a coax input. If you go for OTA ATSC of course you are subject to reception issues just like any other antenna. Since it's digital, it really either works or it doesn't. If your signal is strong enough you get a clear, beautiful picture. If it's not strong enough, you get squat, or even worse a freezing stuttering picture. I live in the suburbs and the antenna is in the basement and I get most channels at 70-80% signal, but this is a entirely dependent on your antenna and not this tuner.
This card also supports unencrypted clear QAM. Cable companies are supposed to (and I think most if not all do) send local digital channels on their basic service. So you should be able to watch your local channels, but not premium channels like HBO since those would be encrypted. Vista Media Center (and I think MCE2005 as well) do NOT support QAM directly. The included AverMedia software receives these with no problem, and Avermedia has a beta plugin that enables it in Vista Media Center (google "clear qam in vista media center" and its one of the first few that come up). However, there are other options such as MediaPortal (for windows, this is what I use) or MythTV (for linux, I don't use this but have heard awesome things about it) which are both open source (i.e. free) alternatives and support clear QAM.
If you are set on using Windows Media Center another alternative is the HD HomeRun, an external unit that also supports QAM and does show up in Media Center.
Other notes about this card, it is PCI-e and not PCI. All recent motherboards have more and more PCI-e slots (less and less PCI), but there isn't much to fill them with... Well, here is one. The tuners on this card are physically *tiny*, especially compared to the hauppaugge pvr-150 which has a huge NTSC tuner. All encoding is done by the card, so it puts very little strain on your CPU (watching HD content is another story).

Click Here to see more reviews about: Avertv Combo PCIE(M780)

Click here for more information about Avertv Combo PCIE(M780)