Can I use both ATI & Hauppauge TV tuners?

[xiowan]

Hello all:
I just sold one of my pc's and would like to keep the Hauppauge TV tunâ™ r
made for Media Center 2005 or Vista Media Center and install it as the 2nd
tuner in my Vista Ultimate PC. That pc already has an ATI Theater 550 Pro
tuner and I wasn't sure if I could mix two different brands without problems
in Vista. I have downloaded the latest Hauppauge Vista/MCE2005 drivers and
would be using them after Vista installs the built in drivers for the
Hauppauge tuner. Anyone know if I can mix tuner brands in Vista without
probs?

xiowan.......in tucson

 

[Curious]

Yes you can as long as you use the same EPG for both analog tuners.

 

[xiowan]

Hello "Curious":
Thanks for the reply! That is certainly good news........at least until
Feb, 2009 when neither one will work without adding a digital to analog box.

xiowan.........in tucson

 

[Curious]

Well you could also switch to cable instead of using an antenna since analog
cable is not going away.

 

[xiowan]

Hi again"Curious"
I'll undoubtedly do that but I kinda wonder how long the cable channels
will continue to support analog transmissions. There must be a limit to how
much bandwidth they have available on their cables until they go all fiber
optics. They already are using that little cable for analog, some HD,
high-speed internet and phone service. I'm guessing they will be glad when
they can drop analog and add more HD and faster than ever internet. Guess
time will tell. By the way, you were absolutely right about using two
different brand tv tuners. I've installed the Hauppauge tuner and Vista
64-bit automatically installed the drivers and then downloaded a sound
update. It seems to be working just fine. When the Hauppauge was in the
other pc I thought it had a bit better picture but on this pc the ATI seems
to be slightly better but it is using newer drivers from ATI. I couldn't
find any 64-bit drivers for the PVR150 on the Hauppauge site....it said to
use the built-in drivers and they seem ok.

xiowan..........in tucson

 

[Curious]

I believe that they are required to continue to supply analog for all
current OTA channels that they currently support till 2012. When you
consider all of the TVs in homes connected to analog cable only it is
envisioned that they will continue to supply analog cable for many years
since it they stop their customers might switch to satellite especially
those in locations that can not receive digital OTA broadcasts.

 

[xiowan]

Wow.......you're a goldmine of information! Maybe you can tell me what cable
& satelite will do with their vast archive of SD movies & programming in 4/3
screen ratio when they broadcast it in digital? Will they reformat it to
fill 16x9 screens with the resulting loss of quality or will it be just
digitalized in the current 4x3 screen? Personally I don't like zooming in to
fill up the screen; the picture doesn't look natural and you lose part of
the scene.

xiowan........in tucson

 

[Curious]

They will do the same thing they do today. They add black side bars to the
actual video to create a 16:9 image and then upscale it to 720p or 1080i
using very expensive hardware equipment which greatly improves the picture
quality. Of course they are not required to upscale it so a lot of it will
remain unchanged and be provided in digital 480i as it is today.
Note that all HD programs are digital, but all digital is not HD most of it
is SD.

 

[xiowan]

Does it damage the analog tv or LCD monitors to display a lot of programming
with the black bars all the time? I've heard that it damages some types of
displays......something about "burn in"?

 

[Curious]

CRT and Plasma TVs were known to have burn in problems in the past. LCD ,
DLP and LCOS TVs do not have this problem

 

[xiowan]

Ouch! My main tv is a 32", 200 lb CRT that I watch a lot of content from the
PC with an xbox 360 extender. I'll be careful not to watch stuff with the
black bars I guess. Thanks for the info..........it's hard to keep up with
all the "advances" in technology. â™ 

 

[Curious]

You would have to watch an awful lot of video with sidebars for it to have a
noticeable effect and watching video without side bars tends to reduce the
burn in.