usb V pci tuner cards

[Scruffie]

Thinking of building a htpc but have a height restriction on the case i can use so also have a restriction on the number and size of pci\pcie cards. I need a DVB-C tuner so am wondering what are the differences between a usb one and pci-e one besides how they connect to the pc. Do usb tuners result in higher cpu usage? Which takes more power to run? are there any compatibility issues with usb tuners with MCE software etc? Can i use PVR software with a usb tuner?
Cheers!

 

[Lampshader]

I use my full tower pc as a HTPC also at the moment. im using a dual DVB-T USB tuner and havent had any problems. Most will intergrate into XPMC / VMC and 7MC with no problem. Im using mine in 7MC and everything works fine apart from the signal some times but i think thats the crappy aerial not the tuner. I havent noticed any slowing down using the usb tuner but then im running a Q9450 with 8Gb of ram so it wouldn't be very noticable anyway. Any PVR software will work you usually get some with the tuner or just use media center like i do you can record pause etc in media center so i never botherd install the bundled PVR software

 

[jameson_uk]

From what I have seen USB tuners seem to run ok but you may have to play around with some settings as the USB devices take a while to get initiated and you may have your app start before your tuner is recognised and this can lead to your app thinking no tuner is installed. (seem to recall reading this on the MP forums which is why there is a delay startup option)

There is also the matter that quite a few PCI (and possibly PCI-express) tuners are actually USB tuners connected via a PCI to USB adaptor on the card anyway so although it is connected via PCI it is still a USB device...

 

[Lampshader]

From what I have seen USB tuners seem to run ok but you may have to play around with some settings as the USB devices take a while to get initiated and you may have your app start before your tuner is recognised and this can lead to your app thinking no tuner is installed. (seem to recall reading this on the MP forums which is why there is a delay startup option)

There is also the matter that quite a few PCI (and possibly PCI-express) tuners are actually USB tuners connected via a PCI to USB adaptor on the card anyway so although it is connected via PCI it is still a USB device...

I have had the start up issue only once or twice with it taking a few seconds to start playing.

I didnt know that about the PCI cards, theres someone on here who know everything lol