HTPC - TV Tuner Reviews
by Jarred Walton on December 7, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
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System Configuration
Initially, we weren't expecting hardware demands to be too great, so we had no intention of pairing the cards with higher-end components. We started the tests with a Sempron 64 3100+ system that was available, figuring that it would provide more than enough power. The PowerColor card was a later addition and made things a bit more difficult as we had already begun running tests. The problem is that the initial test system used a DFI LanParty UT 250Gb. Being an older motherboard – even though it remains one of the best socket 754 boards on the market – it lacks PCIe slots.
In order to accommodate the PowerColor card, we had to get a system with a PCIe slot. An HP DX5150 that we're also working on reviewing was available, so we used that. This is a socket 939 business PC and comes equipped with an ATI Xpress 200 chipset, 2x512MB PC3200 CL3 RAM, and an Athlon 64 4000+ (ClawHammer core). While it packs more CPU power, the important thing is that it has a PCIe X1 slot where we could plug in the Theatre 550. Other components were also different, but we're using this as an opportunity to look at several HTPC platforms as opposed to simply placing the three cards in a single system.
To be fair, we retested the MyHD and Fusion5 cards in the HP system as well. We found that the added processing power had little effect on performance in most situations, the exception being the MyHD card with analog channels. That brought a third test system into use, with an X2 3800+ processor. We'll have more to say on that later, but it was only used to verify that analog encoding with the MyHD was CPU limited on the other platforms. It's always good to get an idea of how cards like these perform in multiple systems, and we were happy to find that the installation of the hardware didn't present any difficulties.
In general, the CPU isn't the bottleneck in HTPC systems. The remainder of the platform is often more important, and we wanted to look at several different platforms: ATI vs. NVIDIA chipsets and graphics cards. We thought that we'd begin by looking at that aspect of the HTPC market before moving onto the cards themselves.
Initially, we weren't expecting hardware demands to be too great, so we had no intention of pairing the cards with higher-end components. We started the tests with a Sempron 64 3100+ system that was available, figuring that it would provide more than enough power. The PowerColor card was a later addition and made things a bit more difficult as we had already begun running tests. The problem is that the initial test system used a DFI LanParty UT 250Gb. Being an older motherboard – even though it remains one of the best socket 754 boards on the market – it lacks PCIe slots.
In order to accommodate the PowerColor card, we had to get a system with a PCIe slot. An HP DX5150 that we're also working on reviewing was available, so we used that. This is a socket 939 business PC and comes equipped with an ATI Xpress 200 chipset, 2x512MB PC3200 CL3 RAM, and an Athlon 64 4000+ (ClawHammer core). While it packs more CPU power, the important thing is that it has a PCIe X1 slot where we could plug in the Theatre 550. Other components were also different, but we're using this as an opportunity to look at several HTPC platforms as opposed to simply placing the three cards in a single system.
| Sempron Configuration | |
| Motherboard: | DFI LanParty UT 250Gb |
| Processor: | AMD Sempron 64 3100+ (Palermo) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 (2-2-2-10-1T) |
| Hard Drive: | Seagate 250GB 7200.8 SATA |
| Chipset Drivers: | NVIDIA nForce3 5.11 |
| Video Cards: | Sapphire X800 Pro AGP VIVO Leadtek 6800GT AGP |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 5.11 (CP and CCC versions) NVIDIA ForceWare 81.95 |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| Athlon 64 (HP DX5150) Configuration | |
| Motherboard: | HP DX5150 (ATI Xpress 200 chipset) |
| Processor: | AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (ClawHammer) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB Samsung PC3200 (3-3-3-8-1T) |
| Hard Drive: | Samsung 160GB SP1614C SATA |
| Chipset Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 5.11 IGP |
| Video Cards: | PowerColor X800 Pro PCIe VIVO XFX GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB (450/1250 clocks) |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 5.11 (CP and CCC versions) NVIDIA ForceWare 81.95 |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Configuration | |
| Motherboard: | DFI nF4 Infinity |
| Processor: | AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Manchester) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4800 EL Platinum (2-2-2-7-1T) |
| Hard Drive: | Western Digital 250GB WD2500JS SATA-2 |
| Chipset Drivers: | NVIDIA nForce4 AMD 6.70 |
| Video Cards: | PowerColor X800 Pro PCIe VIVO XFX GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB (450/1250 clocks) |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 5.11 (CP and CCC versions) NVIDIA ForceWare 81.95 |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
To be fair, we retested the MyHD and Fusion5 cards in the HP system as well. We found that the added processing power had little effect on performance in most situations, the exception being the MyHD card with analog channels. That brought a third test system into use, with an X2 3800+ processor. We'll have more to say on that later, but it was only used to verify that analog encoding with the MyHD was CPU limited on the other platforms. It's always good to get an idea of how cards like these perform in multiple systems, and we were happy to find that the installation of the hardware didn't present any difficulties.
In general, the CPU isn't the bottleneck in HTPC systems. The remainder of the platform is often more important, and we wanted to look at several different platforms: ATI vs. NVIDIA chipsets and graphics cards. We thought that we'd begin by looking at that aspect of the HTPC market before moving onto the cards themselves.
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SynthDude2001 - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
I'm glad to see some attention being given to HDTV tuners; this article is a pretty good primer for anyone considering getting one.I've personally owned the MyHD card (and DVI daughtercard) since February and I'm extremely happy with it. I do often recommend the Fusion 5 to others though, based on its very reasonable price ($99 or so for the Lite version).
highlandsun - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
I've had a Dvico Fusion Gold-T for a few months, it was the immediate predecessor to the Fusion 5 card. So far I've only used it for analog reception since I haven't subscribed to digital service yet. (Comcast; there's no OTA reception here at all.) I installed everything and played with it for a short while, but have basically left it idle. The analog picture I get is much much grainier/noisier than on my Sony Wega TV, so I've not invested any more time into it. I did go so far as to rebuild my Linux kernel with the necessary Video4Linux drivers to get it working, but that's about it.I also have a Dazzle Firewire bridge, so I can use that to pipe the Sony's tuner output into the PC. That means I have to record in DV format, which is pretty disk hungry. I think now that I have an X2 3800+ I can probably transcode it to something else, but haven't tried it yet.
vijay333 - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
good to see that the Sapphire Theatrix (based on the ATI 550 chipset) that I bought in July/August is still the best with regards to analog captures :)NordicNINE - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
Since you're looking at doing a future article with a Nvidia IGP, I think this motherboard would be perfect. I just got a pair for the wife and my son and they seem great. Hi def audio & DVI out would make them perfect HDTV PC's. Too bad they don't make a socket 754 version to pair a Sempron with. Hopefully AMD will release a socket 939 Sempron soon. I'd def be interested in seeing how they'd handle it. I might need to get a couple more.JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
Funny you mention that. It's precisely the motherboard I had in mind, as most of the NVIDIA 61x0 boards don't have built-in DVI ports. I'm a little irked that the TV/Component out is a separate option, though. The board I have didn't include the adapters, so I'll be focusing on the DVI port.segagenesis - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
The quality is actually pretty impressive... its good to know its supported in BeyondTV also. Makes me really consider getting one when I build my PVR.segagenesis - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
Too bad I cant edit my previous post. I downloaded that torrent of the video feeds and all I can say about the analogue capture from the PowerColor Theatre is... WOW! I dont even think the good ol Happauge WinTV PVR's were that good!