PCI vs Receiver
- Thread starter lmax401
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Receiver can do blind scan (find new frequencies)
PCI card you need an output on the card or you have to watch it on your monitor
PCI cards can do HD and 4:2:2 (receivers need receiver that costs mucho money)
PCI card you need an output on the card or you have to watch it on your monitor
PCI cards can do HD and 4:2:2 (receivers need receiver that costs mucho money)
please dont take this as gospel...I dont have a card (just receivers)
someone with a PC card might chime in
also, welcome
to the site
someone with a PC card might chime in
also, welcome
to the site
lmax401 said:
Having worked with a lot of PCI cards in the past and now just getting into set-tops I think that's definitely the case.
With PC cards, you can also record and time-shift programming. ProgDVB also allows streaming of programming across networks. I've experimented with watching programming on my front projector connected to the PC, and it's pretty nice. PC cards are a little harder to get started with though. I've also got a Fortec receiver, and it's definitely a lot easier to set up and blind scanning is not available on the PC cards. Personally, I like having both as it gives me the "best of both worlds".
Nexus -S
I have both the Nexus and Twinhan cards and my favorite is the Nexus. I like the TV output and hardware decoding. I use ProgDVB 4.48 and it works very well. It has an advanced record timer feature that is really nice. After I record my favorite shows, I just dump 'em to my DVD burner. Whallah!
Works great. I do have a Fortec Ultra and I am very happy with it too. Blind scan is a must these days since they are always shifting stuff around, it seems.
MrM
I have both the Nexus and Twinhan cards and my favorite is the Nexus. I like the TV output and hardware decoding. I use ProgDVB 4.48 and it works very well. It has an advanced record timer feature that is really nice. After I record my favorite shows, I just dump 'em to my DVD burner. Whallah!
Works great. I do have a Fortec Ultra and I am very happy with it too. Blind scan is a must these days since they are always shifting stuff around, it seems.
MrM
What I recommend is to get both. I'd get a blind scan reciever and a Twinhan card. This way you'll have the best of both worlds. You'll have the blind scan capability of the reciever along with the ability to do things like HD and 4:2:2 with the twinhan card. Recievers that have those capabilities (HD and 4:2:2) cost much more than the cost of a twinhan card and a good blind search reciever combined and If I undertand correctly these recievers also do not support blind scan or at least the most common and cheapest ones don't. So, by combining the 2 you'll not only get something that's much cheaper but in fact has greater capability.
The twinhan cards are great because they are cheap, support high symbol rates, and DO NOT have a hardware decoder onboard. Because they don't have a hardware decoder onboard and the hardware decoding is done in software, it makes them much more flexible. That way if a new video compression technology comes along (like say MPEG4) in theory it's simply a matter of someone writing software to support it. In contrast let's compare them to a hadrware decoder card like the Nexus. With the Nexus card you have an onboard MPEG2 decoder. Now that may sound good initially but let's look at what that decoder supports. If you do you'll find it only supports 4:2:0 at Standard definition only. Seeing as how just about any PC made in recent years can do this with very little CPU usage, it kinda makes the whole thing moot and useless. Of course at the time the card was designed the hardware decoder was probably state of the art, but by todays standards it's pretty much useless and a waste of silicon. So as you can see the Twinhan approach of software decoding was a much smarter approach in the long run. Some may agrue what's wrong with having the onboard decoder even though it's not usefull. Well, the answer to this is it increases the cost of the card, increases the power consumption, and increases heat output all while adding no real advantage to the functionality of the card in any modern PC.
As for recievers, I have a Pansat 2500a and I'm pleased with it. My understanding is the 2700a is pretty much the same. One nice feature with the pansats is they have digital audio outputs that can pass AC3 audio.
The twinhan cards are great because they are cheap, support high symbol rates, and DO NOT have a hardware decoder onboard. Because they don't have a hardware decoder onboard and the hardware decoding is done in software, it makes them much more flexible. That way if a new video compression technology comes along (like say MPEG4) in theory it's simply a matter of someone writing software to support it. In contrast let's compare them to a hadrware decoder card like the Nexus. With the Nexus card you have an onboard MPEG2 decoder. Now that may sound good initially but let's look at what that decoder supports. If you do you'll find it only supports 4:2:0 at Standard definition only. Seeing as how just about any PC made in recent years can do this with very little CPU usage, it kinda makes the whole thing moot and useless. Of course at the time the card was designed the hardware decoder was probably state of the art, but by todays standards it's pretty much useless and a waste of silicon. So as you can see the Twinhan approach of software decoding was a much smarter approach in the long run. Some may agrue what's wrong with having the onboard decoder even though it's not usefull. Well, the answer to this is it increases the cost of the card, increases the power consumption, and increases heat output all while adding no real advantage to the functionality of the card in any modern PC.
As for recievers, I have a Pansat 2500a and I'm pleased with it. My understanding is the 2700a is pretty much the same. One nice feature with the pansats is they have digital audio outputs that can pass AC3 audio.
Stefan, quit your bitching about the Nexus cards, it's tiring.
Just because you don't have a use for the hardware decoder doesn't mean you have to grind your point at every opportunity.
Apologies to the other posters in the thread
Thread closed.
Just because you don't have a use for the hardware decoder doesn't mean you have to grind your point at every opportunity.
Apologies to the other posters in the thread
Thread closed.
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