Tuner question

[Doomshanked]

Hello all. I'm completely new to the HTPC world and I'm slowly getting a list of parts for a new rig that I will be building later this year and am looking at taking the first plunge with it. I'm going to be using it as primarily a gaming rig but would like to be able to record/watch tv with it as well. I was wondering what would be a good tuner card/easy to use?
Any advice would help.

[Jon]

Hauppauge PVR-150 for standard analog cable. AverMedia makes some pretty good products as well.

If you want digital/HDTV via antenna or QAM (as long as you're not using MCE/VMC), then DVICO and Cat's Eye make very good products. There are others that work well too, but those are my recommendations.

[ARCJr]

Tuner Guide

http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2034&Itemid=1

[Quercus]

If you want digital/HDTV via antenna or QAM (as long as you're not using MCE/VMC)

I've got a VMC box. What would I use to get the digital/HDTV if not VMC?

[Jon]

I've got a VMC box. What would I use to get the digital/HDTV if not VMC?

You'll need an ATSC OTA card like the DVICO Fusion series, or any of the other supported ATSC cards. Hauppauage and Avermedia both make pretty good hybrid cards (analog and digital tuners on one card), so you might want to look into them if space/slots is a concern.

Alot of cards support QAM so that you can get unencrypted digital channels over your standard cable, but QAM isn't supported under MCE/VMC. You can use other tuner software, if that wouldn't bother you though.