Wait, what?

I have the same Hauppauge card. It records ATSC and QAM up to 1080i.

If you need cable card decoding, you can use a Hauppauge 2650, Ceton InfiniTV, SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime, etc.

The ROKU box only had HDMI, so that was out for me. I was also not clear on whether it was limited only to streaming video from online providers, or whether it could also network to a local PC.

Instead, I bought a Western Digital box that's similar. It supports all the Hulu / Pandora / Netflix crap, plus it streams just about every video format known to man directly off the hard drive in my media server PC, and supports both HDMI and analog Component, which I needed.



The card he's linked to claims to support all ATSC formats, which includes the 1080i signal which most broadcasters transmit in presently.

It will not, of course, work with a cable system, except for whatever channels they happen to transmit "in the clear", because it has no CableCard slot.

Which brings me back to the point of cable (and, for that matter, OTA) being mostly irrelevant except for people who watch live sports on TV.

No ish?!? The Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-265 has a cablecard slot?! Winning...


I retract my statement. Told you I was outa the loop. :D Time to ditch the POS SA8300OCAP POS with it's 250gb hdd!!!!!

That would be one do go with if you need to record programming from cable TV in the US.

I must disagree.

The reviews arent that stellar and its only got two tuners.

IMHO its a toss up between the Ceton InfiniTV or a Silicon Dust Prime. Ceton has four tuners, the Prime has three. They interface differently.

If you plan on using only one computer to watch, record and host video the Ceton PCIE card is hands down superior. If you want multiple computers to have access to the tuners than you need the Prime.

I have the Ceton and I haven't had a single issues since I installed it. They also have spectacular customer service and support.

FYI. In order to play video at 720/1080 through a cable card tuner everything between the video card and TV needs to be HDCP compliant. If your TV isn't HDCP compliant(mine isn't), there is an easy way around it but the video card has to be. Otherwise you get a max of 540i.

I run ps3mediaserver (PS3 Media Server | About) on my linux server to feed h264 and mkv's to ps3 (and xbox if i had). i use the dvd bluetooth remote for the ps3 and it is a pretty reasonable interface.

I use gigabit ethernet between the server and the ps3. not sure how well it works with wifi etc.

How will it run you $700? I just rebuilt my whole setup for a bit over $400ish according to the Egg's cart.

HD HomeRun Prime on sale at Fry's starting today:

SiliconDust HD HomeRun Prime HDHR3-CC - $119.99 @ Frys B&M [Starting 07/06/12] - Slickdeals.net

WOW. That is an insane price. If I was shopping today I would be all over that.

<--- doesn't have cable. Just HD/Broadcast through his Cable line that comes in with the Internet I pay for.

So my non-cable card format should work just fine.

Yes, you will have no issues then.

You built the entire system with memory, HD, and video card for $400 (using the components listed and then adding the other stuff - no rebates or other trickery)?

It includes the video card, dude. It's an AMD APU, and DDR3 isn't exactly expensive (I noted used DDR3 which ran me something like $15 shipped for 4gb of DDR3 1600 or some such). The only thing I'm really leaving out is the HD, and that's intentional, as it's a serious YMMV situation there for your purpose.

I come up with $640 with a tiny 1T drive and 4 GB of ram. This is a far cry from $278 and way more than your $400. I must be doing something wrong. My shopping cart (using the original links and adding modest ram, HD, and dual tuner):




Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price



LIAN LI PC-Q25B Black Aluminum Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case

LIAN LI PC-Q25B Black Aluminum Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811112339
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

-$10.00 Instant


$129.99
$119.99




Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822148840
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

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Recover Your Data(expand for options)

-$10.00 Instant


$109.99
$99.99




ASRock A75M-ITX FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard

ASRock A75M-ITX FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813157273
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

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$89.99




Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit Dual TV Tuner w/ IR Remote PCI-E x 1

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit Dual TV Tuner w/ IR Remote PCI-E x 1
Item #: N82E16815116036
Return Policy: VGA Standard Return Policy

-$20.00 Instant


$129.99
$109.99




CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817139027
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

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-$10.00 Instant
$10.00 Mail-in Rebate Card

$69.99
$59.99




G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Item #: N82E16820231277
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy



$29.99




AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6550D AD3870WNGXBOX

AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD ...
Item #: N82E16819106001
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy

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$119.99

Subtotal: $629.93
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Shipping: $11.92

1TB drive and the TV tuner are the cost difference, bro. Plus that PSU is way too expensive now - it's twice the price of when I first listed it. No way in hell is it worth $60 after rebate, and 3x what I paid for my PSU.

The 3870K is way more expensive then when I picked it up - combo deal of $40 off with the mobo + CPU, and newegg was also running a $15 newegg gift certificate deal when you bought a 3870K at the time that stacked with a combo deal, so it was $55 cheaper for the combo than now. Yer RAM is twice as expensive as the stuff I picked up.

I got $40 or $50 off the Lian Li case at the time instead of the $10 off now, so $30 or $40 cheaper than yours. etc. etc.

$20 PSU (CX430), you can pick them up for as cheap as $15-$17 though if you get a good deal
$120+$90 for mobo/vid card/proc, or $210, minus $55 in my case, so $155 total
$15 for RAM, shipped
$120 for case, minus $40 for $80

$270 in total, plus change for shipping. Let's add the discounts however, + $55 for mobo/etc., +$40 for case.

$270 + $55 + $40 = $365, plus shipping. Add $15 for the RAM you listed, $380, plus shipping. Subtract $15, since the egg is running a special deal on the 3870K (15 off promo code), so back to $365. Add $20 for the PSU I listed below, $385 plus shipping, or right at $400 like I said.

Potential alternatives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-17139028-L0B
$40 after rebate, and it's substantially better than your listed PSU for much cheaper.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...19106002-L010C
$85 after promo code, 3670K, but I don't find saving $20 on the proc worth it.

TODAY ONLY Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 Digital Cable Card Dual Tuner $69.99 Free Shipping

For anyone still on the fence, the price just went even lower.

Figures. (edit: nm I didn't need that anyways :P )

I did pick up a couple 2TB drives to run in Raid1 for 99 each. So 200 for 4tb.. or 2tb in Raid... pretty happy with that.

System is still not up though. Waiting for an updated BIOs chip from the motherboard manufacturer. Apparently the board I have with the slightly older bios does not support Ivy Bridge CPUs... and to update it you need a Sandy Bridge CPU or a fresh chip.