HTPC - TV Tuner Reviews
by Jarred Walton on December 7, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
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Image Quality Comparison
Comparing image quality among these cards is inherently a subjective task. Without investing in hundreds of dollars of hardware, you can't do a direct side by side comparison of the same video. In our last TV tuner round-up, Anand used content from CNN, since it loops about every 30 minutes. I'm less of a CNN-type person, so I choose to use content from various football games for the samples. Football has the added advantage of providing fast-paced video. Watching the camera pan down the football field stresses the codec, and you get the added benefit of being able to find many football games broadcast in 1080i and 720p HDTV.
Starting with the analog content, we have six sample points: FusionHDTV; MyHD using the Sempron, 4000+ and the X2 3800+; and finally two from the Theater 550 Pro. We set all configurations to use the best encoding possible, though the MyHD was CPU limited when running without the X2, resulting in very low encoding settings.
Looking at the full-size images, it should be pretty obvious that the Theater 550 provides the best analog quality. The MyHD, analog quality is terrible on the 4000+ and even worse on the Sempron. However, the quality using the X2 is actually very good. The Fusion5 analog quality isn't bad, but one thing that the image can't convey is the audio. All of our analog captures using the Fusion5 have a high-pitched squeal throughout the video. This appears to be a problem with the Fusion HDTV software, so using a different application should fix the issue. As we've already hinted, analog only users will definitely want to get a quality analog card as opposed to something like the Fusion5 or the MyHD. That brings us to the HDTV captures.
There really isn't a whole lot to say about the digital quality of the cards, other than that HDTV images are vastly superior to any analog/SDTV broadcast. As long as the card can receive the transport stream, the quality should be identical to any other card that can receive the transport stream. The card doesn't have to do any encoding, so if the signal is clean, the quality is exceptional. We didn't get an example of the Fusion5 capturing 1080i content, but there shouldn't be any difference from the MyHD capture. What we did provide is an upsampled 1080i sample. Needless to say, if you start with a 480i video, more than doubling the resolution isn't going to provide a clean result.
Incidentally, if you do get a card that can record digital transport streams, you might want a cost-effective way to play the videos on another HDTV. A $500 computer could probably get the job done, but you might not want another PC. Here's a home theater device that can play DVDs, DivX files, MPEG-1/2, and WMV9 (unprotected) videos. It can also handle TS/PS files (which are just a variant of MPEG-2). More importantly, it can do all this through the 10/100 Mbit network connection. If there's enough interest, we'll try to get one for review.
Comparing image quality among these cards is inherently a subjective task. Without investing in hundreds of dollars of hardware, you can't do a direct side by side comparison of the same video. In our last TV tuner round-up, Anand used content from CNN, since it loops about every 30 minutes. I'm less of a CNN-type person, so I choose to use content from various football games for the samples. Football has the added advantage of providing fast-paced video. Watching the camera pan down the football field stresses the codec, and you get the added benefit of being able to find many football games broadcast in 1080i and 720p HDTV.
Starting with the analog content, we have six sample points: FusionHDTV; MyHD using the Sempron, 4000+ and the X2 3800+; and finally two from the Theater 550 Pro. We set all configurations to use the best encoding possible, though the MyHD was CPU limited when running without the X2, resulting in very low encoding settings.
 MyHD Sempron |
 MyHD 4000+ |
 MyHD X2 3800+ |
 Fusion5 |
 Theater 550 |
 Theater 550 |
| Click on images to enlarge. | ||
Looking at the full-size images, it should be pretty obvious that the Theater 550 provides the best analog quality. The MyHD, analog quality is terrible on the 4000+ and even worse on the Sempron. However, the quality using the X2 is actually very good. The Fusion5 analog quality isn't bad, but one thing that the image can't convey is the audio. All of our analog captures using the Fusion5 have a high-pitched squeal throughout the video. This appears to be a problem with the Fusion HDTV software, so using a different application should fix the issue. As we've already hinted, analog only users will definitely want to get a quality analog card as opposed to something like the Fusion5 or the MyHD. That brings us to the HDTV captures.
 MyHD 720p |
 Fusion5 720p |
 MyHD 1080i |
 MyHD 1080i - upsampled 480i |
| Click on images to enlarge. |
There really isn't a whole lot to say about the digital quality of the cards, other than that HDTV images are vastly superior to any analog/SDTV broadcast. As long as the card can receive the transport stream, the quality should be identical to any other card that can receive the transport stream. The card doesn't have to do any encoding, so if the signal is clean, the quality is exceptional. We didn't get an example of the Fusion5 capturing 1080i content, but there shouldn't be any difference from the MyHD capture. What we did provide is an upsampled 1080i sample. Needless to say, if you start with a 480i video, more than doubling the resolution isn't going to provide a clean result.
Incidentally, if you do get a card that can record digital transport streams, you might want a cost-effective way to play the videos on another HDTV. A $500 computer could probably get the job done, but you might not want another PC. Here's a home theater device that can play DVDs, DivX files, MPEG-1/2, and WMV9 (unprotected) videos. It can also handle TS/PS files (which are just a variant of MPEG-2). More importantly, it can do all this through the 10/100 Mbit network connection. If there's enough interest, we'll try to get one for review.
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JarredWalton - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link
The only system it impacted was the MyHD for analog. I did perform most of the tests at stock clock speeds. But yeah, I should probably make that note. (The X2 was overclocked to 2.6 GHz as well, if you didn't notice, but I only tested the MyHD card in that system.)The Boston Dangler - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
"While the Toshiba 46H84 is in fact a 1080i display - or really a 1920x540p display, if I understand it correctly"The display has 1080 horizontal lines of resolution, scanned alternately. 1080i format signals carry data roughly equivalent of 540p.
My opinion: Having owned both 1080i and 720p sets, and watching programs in their native formats, the difference in pic quality is entirely upon the display. There are both formats present in OTA/Cable, something always gets converted. Either format can provide great pics, even after conversion. It's all about the display.
"The onscreen Guide also doesn't work for me - it shows up blank - but this appears to be at least partly Comcast's fault. The FusionHDTV software is supposed to read the EPG information from the channel stream, but Comcast isn't including that in my area, as far as I can tell. (This was a problem on the MyHD as well, so that lends credence to the assumption that the local Comcast provider is to blame.)"
EPG is usually considered an extra service by content providers, thus a cable box and subscription are required. There are online alternatives, sometimes with handy plugins.
slashdotcomma - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
What's the lag between signal and display? Would I be able to use any of these tuner cards and play on a gamecube,xbox(360),ps2/3, etc?JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
I'm not quite sure what you mean. Are you trying to capture videos of your gameplay? Or just get the game console input onto your computer screen? Tuning to digital channels introduces about a two second lag, and on analog channels it's more like a .5 second to one second lag. Obviously, neither of those would be acceptable for gaming. It sounds like what you really want would be some form of transcoder?Note: it never even occurred to me to test this aspect of the cards, and I don't have a game console with which to test it. Sorry -- I'm a PC gamer. :-)
slashdotcomma - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
Yes, I'm trying to get the game console input onto my computer screen. Lag for changing channels and lag between signal and screen is slightly different. For example, I played around with an AIW-9800 pro and changing channels would introduce a slight lag, but playing game consoles on it was beautiful. No lag, and everything was smooth as silk (p42.8c, 1gb ram, don't remember which MMC v9 it was). Actually it doesn't even have to be a video console, try plugging in a dvd player or vcr and try moving around in the menu. I wish more reviewers would add this to part of their reviews. I plan on playing around with Dscaler if I get the chance. There are ways to hook up game consoles to computer screen but you lose the recording ability and in some cases DVI support. Do you have a chance to play around with the older tv tuners as well?JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
I don't have any older TV Tuners, though Anand might still have some of them. I'll have to see if I can get a game console over to try out in this fashion. I might actually have an N64 boxed up somewhere. I use PCs for DVD watching, and I don't have a VCR either, so it's going to take a bit of work. I do know that if I tune in the Comcast box to an analog channel and at least one or two of the tuners (I don't recall which), they were not in sync with each other; the Comcast was slightly ahead all the time, so it seems like lag is present.sprockkets - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
I record for example LOST from the s-video out on my HDTV receiver, and it goes to a Lite On recorder on highest quality, and if you see it you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. Or, you can simply record 720x480 at a high quality via s-video in and get the same results on these cards. Of course that means setting up two devices.Does HDTV recording from these cards preserve the Dolby Digital 5.1 signal as well?
segagenesis - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
Yes, they should. If you have ever checked out any of the Lost tv torrents you would be familiar that this is possible also ;)vailr - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
ATI's MMC v. 9.10 may work with 550 tuner cards, according to this thread:http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33835...">ATI words on MMC 9.10: Dual-tuner MulTView + 550 support!
Combined with their Gemstar GuidePlus software, would enable an electronic program guide.
Note: MMC 9.10 is not currently available on ATI's web site; only on the software CD provided with their latest XT180AIW card.
vailr - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
The link is for the older PCI version, not the currently reviewed PCIe version.