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Posted by jaykchan on 03/06/06 18:00
Six tuners seems to be a bit too much. My wife and I have been using
BeyondTV for two years or so. My PC only has one tuner. Most of the
time, one tuner is enough for my wife and I (we tend to watch totally
different TV shows). I almost never get into a situation that I want
to record two TV shows in the same time slot. In a few occasions, my
wife and I both want to record two different TV shows in the same time
lot (I give in 75% of the time); that were the only time I wanted to
have two tuners.
This means at most I would want are two tuners. I don't see any reason
why I would want 4 or 6 tuners. The reasons are very simple: (1)
There are not that many good TV shows that I want to record; most are
repeats anyway. (2) Most TV shows repeat themselves after midnight or
at a different time slot in the same week; if one time slot has
conflict, I simply record it in a different time slot. (3) The number
of tuners in a PC is also limited by the number of tuners in the
set-top box, and the number of set-top-boxes. (4) More importantly,
there is not enough time in a day to watch that many TV shows; I delete
more TV shows than I actually watch.
Obviously, your viewing pattern is different from mine. But I still
have a feeling that 2 tuners should be enough for one to two persons.
I would only want to have 4 tuners if my kids also want to start
recording TV shows.
If you can limit the number of tuners in the PC, you will not need a
very powerful CPU or a very large hard disk. This in turn reduces the
cost and the cooling requirement.
There is one thing that I am not sure that is how HDTV may change your
need of the number of tuners in your PC: My impression is:
"If your TV has SDTV or HDTV tuner, you will be able to watch
live-TV in TV mode instead of using the tuner in the PC to watch
live-TV. This will cut down the number of tuner that you need in the
PC. On the other hand, if your HDTV doesn't come with a HDTV tuner and
you are trying to watch live HDTV shows over the air, you will have to
reserve one tuner in the PC for watching live HDTV shows at each HDTV
TV. If you have two HDTVs that don't have HDTV tuners, you will need
two tuners for recording shows, and two more tuners for watching
live-TV in those two HDTVs."
Please correct me if my impression is wrong.
Jay Chan
Ken Moiarty wrote:
> "Bob" <spam@uce.gov> wrote in message
> news:4409dec8.98715062@news-server.houston.rr.com...
> > On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 06:43:37 -0800, "Ken Moiarty" <kmoiarty35@shaw.ca>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>But I will want to eventually pack it with at
> >>least three encoder-capture cards (which would allow it up to six tuners),
> >
> > What make and model?
>
> Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500.
>
> > Why so many tuners?
>
> Well I don't know that I'll ever really want all that many. I just want to
> leave that option as wide open in case I discover in my PVR viewing habits
> that something more than two tuners may come in handy for recording "needs"
> I may find over time that I frequently come across. For example, in the
> short time I've owned my cable provider supplied PVR, which has two tuners
> in it, I've come across at least one instance in which I couldn't record a
> program because I already had two other programs scheduled to record at that
> very same time. And more commonly, there are times when I reach to change
> the channel only to be warned that I've got two recordings going on and that
> to proceed I'll have to stop one of them. Of course, this hardly justifies
> resorting to six tuners, I realize. But the logical step up in number of
> tuners from two would be to go to at least four. Leaving open the option
> for two tuners above that is, let's say, just extra breathing room.
>
> >
> > How much CPU power is used by these cards?
>
> I don't have the specs on that at this time.
>
> >
> > I have a Celeron-D CPU which is plenty fast for routine Internet use.
> > It is a helluva lot cheaper than its P4 counterpart. My son's P4 isn't
> > any faster except for games.
> >
>
> I wouldn't buy a Celeron CPU if I was paid to. Well, maybe _only if_ I was
> paid to. <g> Celeron is just a de-tuned Pentium. In other words, it is
> Pentium which is handicapped by an downsized onboard cache. We have
> Celerons on our computers at work. While admittedly there may be other
> factors involved, I do get tired of waiting for the lightest of programs to
> load on those machines.
>
>
> > I would add a NIC and connect this unit to your LAN so you can archive
> > on another machine with removable drive bays. Hard disks are cheap
> > enough to be the archive media of choice.
> >
>
> That's why I want a RAID hard disk controller. So I can use multiple hard
> disks to record to as though they were one partition. Otherwise the PVR
> software will stop at only one disk.
>
> > Let us know how it all works out. I expect the major makers of DVDRs
> > to offer something like this, maybe as soon as the next Christmas
> > season: Multiple tuners, hard disk, DVD and network.
> >
>
> They may, but they have to contend with members of the original-content
> industry who are afraid of allowing consumers such technical control over
> what they watch. A big part of this concern has to do with how television
> programming is financed: Commercials. PVR's give consumers unprecedented
> ease, if not invitation, with which to avoid watching commercials. Making
> PVR's that are viewed as "too appealing" and/or "too powerful" meets with a
> lot of resistance and pressure from the content providers and such; many of
> whom are just a different branch or division of the very companies
> responsible for the manufacture of these machines.
>
> Ken
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