TV tuner suggestions

[MadMan007]

I'm looking for a TV tuner with ATSC/ClearQAM/(maybe NTSC - not sure if there's any purpose for that any more)

I'm open to most any type of tuner. I'd kind of prefer an internal card, if so that would have to be PCI. Otherwise USB or a fully external box is ok. The fully external ones intrigue me, especially because they can work without a PC so if all I wanted was to watch TV I could. Then again I could just get a digital tuner box to do that for a bit less money.

Need suggestions for cards that work well, more so than online reviews or user reviews like Newegg. Basically I want good quality tuning ability and especially non-flaky software, for Vista most importantly or XP/Server 2003 if I put it in my WHS box for DVRing. Use with alternate programs or DVR type software is a plus.

Let me know what you've used, if there are brands or models to avoid, or anything else useful!

[chuck4456]

HAUPPAGE HVR 1600 Series are good ones.

[MadMan007]

Yes that was one obvious choice since Hauppage is a well-known tuner maker. Do you have one? What do you like or not like? Details are nice :)

Any other recommendations from more people?

Actually it seems that ClearQAM only works for Hauppauge cards within their own WinTV software which gets lots of bad comments. Not sure if that sounds very good...

[MadMan007]

Still open to comments but for now I'm going to hold back a bit. I'm going to get some DTV converters for basic TV viewing. No DVR'ing that way but that doesn't bother me too much, and only 'SD' output but again not a huge deal. This way it's much cheaper for me now and I can wait for things to get ironed out for some months after the full DTV conversion. That is unless someone has a completely positive personal recommendation, maybe :p

[Jon]

If you want ClearQAM, I'd always suggest the HDHomeRun. It is external, but if you're on a small home network, it only makes sense since every system could utilize it. It's also compatible with just about every HTPC software available.