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HDTV: Stand-alone or PC-based?

Pantaz

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Pantaz
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Messages
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For the price of a cheap 26" HDTV (~$400), it looks like I could get a similar-size LCD monitor and HDTV tuner card for my PC. Going with a stand-alone HDTV is simpler, but using the PC adds many features/options. (It will replace the 21" regular TV in my bedroom.)

HDTV-tuner cards are available from quite a few manufacturers, such as Hauppauge, ATI, Pinnacle, and AVerMedia. Based on user comments at various sellers, I can't really pick one over the others.

Opinions? Advice? :confused:
 
Most HDTVs have a VGA input, so they could replace your monitor and you would have the convenience of not having to use the PC when you only wanted to watch TV. You could always add a card later if you think you need the pc functionality.
 
Depends on what you plan on using as a source. If it is mainly Blu-Ray commercial discs, then I'd go for a stand-alone. If you plan on using compressed formats like mkv, then PC all the way. If you also plan on picture/audio processing then PC is obligatory. One concern with the PC is the noise levels: You have to make sure you build a quiet rig or that you place it somewhere where noise won't be bothering you. I went watercooling for that reason.

ETA: I answered with HD content in mind, while you obviously think of HDTV. Yet, with a few modifications, what I said is also valid for HDTV
 
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The PC option can act as a VCR, DVD player, MP3 stereo system, Internet Radio player, and game system. With current software, it's not much more difficult that setting up the HDTV itself is (plug in, turn on, navigate menus for 'set up automagically', and wait).

But beware that most LCD monitors make poor TV's. They tend to have less tolerance for viewer position (especially vertically), and tend to be less bright. But if those limitations don't matter much (they don't to me), the options a PC offers are quite worth it.
 
I'm using an ATI 650 and am satisfied with it for the most part. Most of the issues tend to be related to MS apps and my cable provider Comcast. The Media Center that comes with Vista refuses to see the digital part of the card and the app that comes with the ATI card doesn't seem to like the way Comcast does digital or something because the program guide and chanel lineup aren't even close to reality.

Windows 7 made some progress with the Media Center, it saw the 650 as a dual card, but didn't see any of the channels. That might be a driver issue, and since ATI totally blundered the 8.12 for systems with alot of memory and we won't seen new drivers til the 9.3 package I can't say.

If I were to buy now, I might get the Hauppauge. Not because the ATI is bad but because I've heard good things about them and I'm always trying different stuff. Who knows, if I had the Hauppauge I might say I'd be looking at the ATI cards. But the ATI card was cheaper at the time and the shipping was free.
 
Dude, spend a few more bucks or wait a bit and get yourself something like a 42" lCD TV. These take HDMI so you can drive with with your PC just fine (my laptop will output audio and video over HDMI to my TV is needed).
 
NewtonTrino said:
Dude, spend a few more bucks or wait a bit and get yourself something like a 42" lCD TV. These take HDMI so you can drive with with your PC just fine (my laptop will output audio and video over HDMI to my TV is needed).
Click to expand...

42" TV at the foot of my bed would be a bit like sitting in the front row at the movie theater! :boggled: (Okay, not really, but you know what I mean.)

Jumping from 26" to 42" is also a lot more than "a few more bucks"!
 
id go with the PC solution, i have that also. It is also my video recorder and player for the video beamer in the livingroom.

But thetuner software from pinnacle / ATI and Haupage are crap. they crash have bugs and so on.

but i buyed me one. and i was amazed. no crash, no lag no bugs, all functions work. (just like it should be)

if you want to know more details about the software just PM me.
who knows maybe they fixed their troubles.

But to set it up its easyer to go with the stand alone.
 
I use a Sharp Aquos 32" HDTV for my monitor.
The tv has 6 inputs, I have my computer connected through one of the HDMI inputs and my cable box is connected to the coaxial input.

I can use the tv as a monitor or a tv, but not both at the same time.
The problem with tv tuner cards is that you will frequently need to have your cable box in the loop to get all your stations.

The last tv tuner card I had was an All in Wonder ATI card about 6 years ago.
I wasn't able to connect this card to my cable box so I was missing about 1/2 of the stations that I was paying for.
 
I went the PC route and combined several pieces of equipment into one.

Not bragging, just explaining:

AMD Phenom X4 9850 quad core processor and 16gigs of ram with an 80g system drive and two 1tb hard drives combined as /opt in an LVM (which will grow to 4tb soon.) My set up uses the hauppauge 1600 card which both grabs over the air TV (and I've read can do the digital over the air broadcasts) and does CATV direct. My system of choice is 64 bit Ubuntu with MythTV. It also uses an NVIDIA 9500GT card with a gig of onboard ram and two outs, one to the 42" plasma and one to a 17" lcd for system monitoring/normal computing tasks.

All in one I have DVR/CATV plus music/internet radio/internet tv (if anyone wants the link to getting 64 bit flash working native on their linux box, PM me)/picture viewer etc. you get with something like the apple TV. I also have ripped all my DVD collection in at 1:1 and can watch those from the hard drive. MythTV backend is also serving to the other PC in the house and my laptop for all of the above over gig ethernet/wifi. For a neat trick I installed the MythTV front end on my samsung Q1 Ultra and can watch TV/movies/etc streamed over the wifi to any room.

My set up is NOT for beginners. It took lots of tweaking and command line geekery to bring to working condition. I should point out, though, that the entire cost of putting this server together in terms of money was less than many plasma TV's standalone systems. I already owned the plasma TV however.

Oh, this box also does folding@home and serves HTTP/HTTPS, MySQL, IMAPS, SMTP, SSH and is my network firewall/DHCP server. The internet connection for my home network goes directly to this box with an onboard ADSL modem from Sangoma and a gig NIC going to a gig switch. Wifi is done via an onboard wireless G card and is firewalled off from the wired network.

All of this put together was less than 600 bucks (not including parts I already had, like the wireless card, the ADSL Sangoma modem and the TV.) I bought all the components in January at MicroCenter, so the sales deals were killer. Cost in time was .... well who am I kidding, I never stop tweaking this thing (It's the geek in me.) With the right time input, you can do quite a lot with MythTV and some relatively cheap hardware.

One note: The Hauppauge 1600 is a BEAR to get working under linux right now. I suggest going with another card unless you want to either A) put a monstrous amount of work into getting it working flawlessly or B) buy it and wait another 6 months for full kernel support. Trust me on this.

Even if you just get an intel mac mini and the EyeTV adapter (this is what I used to run) it's a better investment I think to go the computer route as you can then do very flexible things compared to the standalone stuff.

In the end, I consolidated 14 seperate power plugs down to 2.


ETA: Forgot to add:

1) I only have the barest possible cable package, so there's no set top box. the coax just hooks up to my computer. YMMV, some people like having more channels.

2) Windows/Linux/Mac: You can use the firewire output on your set top cable box to directly input to your computer. It's tricky, but worth it. Google around for instructions. For MythTV the matrix on firewire compatibility is here: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Firewire_Cable_Box_Compatibility
 
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Ducky said:
MythTV backend is also serving to the other PC in the house and my laptop for all of the above over gig ethernet/wifi. For a neat trick I installed the MythTV front end on my samsung Q1 Ultra and can watch TV/movies/etc streamed over the wifi to any room.
Click to expand...
I've thought about that (MythTV), but from my limited research, it looks like more work than I want to put into watching television.

Ducky said:
The Hauppauge 1600 is a BEAR to get working under linux right now. I suggest going with another card unless you want to either A) put a monstrous amount of work into getting it working flawlessly or B) buy it and wait another 6 months for full kernel support. Trust me on this.
Click to expand...
Good to know. Thanks!
 
If you go Linux/MythTV, the PCHD5500 series tuner cards are a breeze to set up and use. Build the system, run the install, watch TV. The trickiest thing is if you want to get a remote control working that isn't already on 'the list'. Second trickiest is figuring out that your expensive new ATI video card won't ever work1, and realizing that a five-year-old NVidia2 will get the job done better.

TV, DVR, DVD, movie and music server all in one box.

Only tricky thing I have my box doing is running torrents at 50% of my line capacity.
1Well, maybe they've got their driver working to properly decode ATSC/MPEG in hardware by now, but I haven't checked
2Low-profile fanless 7100gs
 
Ducky said:
I went the PC route and combined several pieces of equipment into one.

Not bragging, just explaining:

AMD Phenom X4 9850 quad core processor and 16gigs of ram with an 80g system drive and two 1tb hard drives combined as /opt in an LVM (which will grow to 4tb soon.) My set up uses the hauppauge 1600 card which both grabs over the air TV (and I've read can do the digital over the air broadcasts) and does CATV direct. My system of choice is 64 bit Ubuntu with MythTV. It also uses an NVIDIA 9500GT card with a gig of onboard ram and two outs, one to the 42" plasma and one to a 17" lcd for system monitoring/normal computing tasks.

All in one I have DVR/CATV plus music/internet radio/internet tv (if anyone wants the link to getting 64 bit flash working native on their linux box, PM me)/picture viewer etc. you get with something like the apple TV. I also have ripped all my DVD collection in at 1:1 and can watch those from the hard drive. MythTV backend is also serving to the other PC in the house and my laptop for all of the above over gig ethernet/wifi. For a neat trick I installed the MythTV front end on my samsung Q1 Ultra and can watch TV/movies/etc streamed over the wifi to any room.

My set up is NOT for beginners. It took lots of tweaking and command line geekery to bring to working condition. I should point out, though, that the entire cost of putting this server together in terms of money was less than many plasma TV's standalone systems. I already owned the plasma TV however.

Oh, this box also does folding@home and serves HTTP/HTTPS, MySQL, IMAPS, SMTP, SSH and is my network firewall/DHCP server. The internet connection for my home network goes directly to this box with an onboard ADSL modem from Sangoma and a gig NIC going to a gig switch. Wifi is done via an onboard wireless G card and is firewalled off from the wired network.

All of this put together was less than 600 bucks (not including parts I already had, like the wireless card, the ADSL Sangoma modem and the TV.) I bought all the components in January at MicroCenter, so the sales deals were killer. Cost in time was .... well who am I kidding, I never stop tweaking this thing (It's the geek in me.) With the right time input, you can do quite a lot with MythTV and some relatively cheap hardware.

One note: The Hauppauge 1600 is a BEAR to get working under linux right now. I suggest going with another card unless you want to either A) put a monstrous amount of work into getting it working flawlessly or B) buy it and wait another 6 months for full kernel support. Trust me on this.

Even if you just get an intel mac mini and the EyeTV adapter (this is what I used to run) it's a better investment I think to go the computer route as you can then do very flexible things compared to the standalone stuff.

In the end, I consolidated 14 seperate power plugs down to 2.


ETA: Forgot to add:

1) I only have the barest possible cable package, so there's no set top box. the coax just hooks up to my computer. YMMV, some people like having more channels.

2) Windows/Linux/Mac: You can use the firewire output on your set top cable box to directly input to your computer. It's tricky, but worth it. Google around for instructions. For MythTV the matrix on firewire compatibility is here: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Firewire_Cable_Box_Compatibility
Click to expand...


WOW and i thought im crazy.
you got the most powerfull TV in the world :D
cool
 
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Diogenes said:
Hey Ducky! I noticed you mentioned you do FOH ..
Have you considered joining the JREF team ?? Team 13232 ..

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=13232

We have miserably low participation from JREF members, considering over 3,000 are active ..
Our team participation is usually less than 20 members at any given time..

Here is the JREF FOH thread..

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154
Click to expand...


I am already on a team, but thanks. (Same answer as when the JREF F@H team started.)

I wish you luck, though. Were I not already dedicated to another F@H team on all my processors, I would join.
 
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