SKY > Freeview

[evolution400]

Hi guys I am thinking of cancelling SKY in the new year and going the DVB-T route so what "PCI" cards are people using sucessfully using, S3 no problems at all etc.
What about these nova-t from pc world are they fully functional with MCE ?
I will be then selling my PVR-350 and NVTV cards come next year if anyone is looking for a PVR card at that time.
cheers.

[Dan L]

I'm doing the same, have already cancelled SKY and am holding out for the new Hauppauge DVB-T dual-tuner card which is due out soon...no idea how much it will be though.

[dejongj]

I'm doing the same as well...Just waiting for the Terratec 2400 dual DVB-T on PCI-e...Purely because I then have something to put in my PCI-e slots ;-)

[meansizzler]

the Nova-T is a great card, I had two at one time, S3 no problems, just make sure you have the Latest drivers from the Hauppauge Site..

[Embarker]

guess what i've done the same - never looked back

hidden bonus is that laptop can stream tv recordings via window media 10 over a wireless b connection perfectly.

Bit sad i know watching "i'm a celeb" in bed now

[HiZ]

I have two Black Gold's. No problems with them. I'm also waiting for the dual Terratec. Got a feeling there may be a few single DVB-T cards appearing on Ebay soon.

Dabs are going to do the Terratec http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=3WH3

[evolution400]

I think I may take advantage of the nova-T offer in PC world and get 2 of them £80 for twin tuners is about the cheapest I have found and means as they are triled and tested in MCE should be ok.
I have a plug in freeview amp so I presume I just buy a splitter for the cable then one cable to each card ?
I am all for the new dual tuners but I bet there will be a few teething troubles for a while.
Oh and do the interactive/text buttons work in MCE then ?

[RichardBoult]

Don't forget that you own the box and dish if its over 12 months old and so if you cancel your sky subscription you can keep receiving what sky are charging £100 for which is 'Freesat from Sky!!'

I'm looking at getting hold of one of the Terratec 2400i DTs which start shipping in the UK next week; Dual tuner, single slot so record one channel whilst watching another...

[evolution400]

Originally Posted by b17flyboy

I'm looking at getting hold of one of the Terratec 2400i DTs which start shipping in the UK next week; Dual tuner, single slot so record one channel whilst watching another...

I dont have PCIE only PCI so thats out for me.
The seperate card solution does the same thing as the dual tuner just you only need one slot as opposed to 2 not sure about wattage I would assume that the 2 slots would use up more than the dual tuner.

[evolution400]

Originally Posted by RichardBoult

Don't forget that you own the box and dish if its over 12 months old and so if you cancel your sky subscription you can keep receiving what sky are charging £100 for which is 'Freesat from Sky!!'

I wasn't aware you could have freesat for free thanks for that.
Just checked the sky web site for the channels listing lots of channels but most of them are utter crap
Still its more or less the same as freeview with channels that freeview you dont get and vice versa.

[RichardBoult]

As I understand it, there are more channels here than DTTV. Your right though most of them are crap....I wonder how many people cancel their sky subscription and go out and buy a terrestrial digital stb though!!

Its Skys marketing that has made people believe they have to subscribe to get anything over a satellite!!

[HiZ]

Higher bitrate on Sky than Freeview. Could argue that the 'quality' will be lower though cos you have to convert back to PAL or UHF before re-capturing in the PC.

[evolution400]

I have taken the plunge and bought 2 * Nova-T cards from PCworld installed them both I find that the picture is better than my old PVR setup with SKY however I find that when I watch my extender I now have black bars on top and bottom when I watch live tv and I have no zoom option when I press info on my xbox extender should I have the zoom option and is the black bars normal ?

[JonLeach]

Originally Posted by evolution400

I have taken the plunge and bought 2 * Nova-T cards from PCworld installed them both I find that the picture is better than my old PVR setup with SKY however I find that when I watch my extender I now have black bars on top and bottom when I watch live tv and I have no zoom option when I press info on my xbox extender should I have the zoom option and is the black bars normal ?

hi i had the same after installing a nova-t and allready having a blackgold card, by the way they work fine together. found the problem to be the nvidia decoder changing from "content default" to anamorphic.

to change it run some tv on your mce and minimise to desktop. right click your codec and choose content default.

Don't go into codec issues. my nvidia is constantly changing back to spdif after reset or using dvd when currently (until i decide which usb soundcard to go for) dont even have spdif in the pc

Jon