http://www.nvidia.com/page/dualtvmce.html?www.reghardware.co.uk

I use two Set top boxes and was hoping that this card could replace the two PVR150's.  Great card but sound is rubbish!

Cheers

 

That link does not say what card it is! and when I click buy it now it takes me to the Purevideo Decoder?

Just on a side note I would be suprised if it allowed you to get rid of your STB's, but it would allow you to get rid of the 2 x PVR150's.

EDIT: OK I see what I did, looks like the card is only avaliable on the US website not the UK one and it is actually called the NVidia DualTV MCE Tuner..my bad..

the pal version is coming out shortly. I ordered one that according to fedex will be delivered today. I like that its 2 stbs in a single slot also. the big reason I jumped for it, check the user manual. you can adjust the settings in mce looking at the image!!!!! also sounded like they are doing some sort of correction on the encode also. I'm not thrilled with the phillips tuner chipset, but I'm stb and don't use them anyhow.

I also grabbed the remote control version, it looks like the remote is heavier and hoping its better on batteries.

Cool thanks!

I'll keep my eye out for the PAL version.

 

I ordered it, should get it Wednesday.......looks good but I should have waited till I read some solid reviews.......Using a Haupaggue PVR USB2 & ATI HDTV currently and I didn't have a real reason to upgrade other then to be able to record two channels at once.   I hope the "internal splitter" in on the card has better signal loss then a regular splitter..........will post my experiences next week.

yeah, the wording on their internal splitter made me think its a small da or inline amp on it also.  not sure I'm thrilled that its happening internally in the computer where its more prone to interference, but definately an interesting approach. 

Mine arrived friday.  I hope to be at the point I can fire it up and see it working tommorrow.  I'm putting it into a new mce buildout and a buggy bios threw me off a couple days (well, and I was waiting for the card).

EDITED TO GIVE A FAIR REVIEW AFTER I HAD A CHANCE TO USE IT MORE.  This IS my favorite tuner and it will stay in my setup.

First impressions. 

If your using stbs, there is only enough cables for 1 in the box.  There is a good collection of cables and a coax splitter.  Since it uses a mini 3.5mm plug for sound, chances are most people are not going to have one laying around and you should check your cable stash to see if you need to get one if you have one ordered and go buy one before the store is closed and you want to get it in immediately.

The drivers are not on the website yet so I had to use the cd.  One plus is before it starts installing anything, it asks if you want to check for a newer version on the website.  I hope this becomes a trend for all manufacturers who make parts where your machine should be internet connected by the time you put the driver disk in.  Obviously, I can't see this being helpful for chipset and nic card drivers, but everything else should go to this method.

Definately a single slot, even when using 2 stbs.  Its not low profile though so you small case users might be out of luck.

Shipped with a copy of the basic purevideo decoder and a copy of sonic's mydvd.  it only says limited edition on the mydvd cd so I'm not sure if its a trial or not.  But a good packaging option since most people will probably want to burn shows off their machine.

Install went easy, just put the card in, told windows to cancel finding the drivers and ran the setup on the cd.  it has you reboot and a very simple 1 time only splashscreen telling you how to setup mce to use the tuners.  at least I assume its 1 time only.  might splash until you do set it up.  The install also prompted for what parts you want to put in, so I have a better version of purevideo or someone with another prefered decoder can easy unselect it from installing.

There is a more programs option to change settings.  its a very limited only toggles on some items.  For those with vcrs, there is a relaxed timing option to help you sync vcr tapes if your trying to capture them with mce.  Other wise, its very simple only a couple other options but definatly options to fine tune this thing to your usage. 

The manual.  This is the best guide to fine tuning mce ever made.  Not the manual in the box that is only a quick guide but the full 120 page pdf that gets installed when you put in the drivers.  They NEED to chop this thing up and put in parts with video cards.  Its primarily around nvidia technology but it has dozens of pages on how to fine tune your tv using the windows samples.  good examples of correct and incorrect.  A beginners hand held guide to getting mce to look the best it can.  It also goes into purevideo settings to get better playback and then into tuner settings to get the best capture. 

Out of the box:

By default, they made it for the least common denominator of a user.  Someone with a crt television with svideo/composite who may not trake the time to adjust settings.  great playback with an extender.  For the home theater and person who takes the time to adjust, the options are perfect.  Modes of pro, cinema, home theater/isf, normal and basic.  Color seperation, noise reduction and timing for those with a vcr.  

Pros:

• single pci slot even with 2 stbs
• Best manual ever written for a user new to home theater trying to adjust the tv on their own.
• good collection of starter cables and single fm antenna
• comes with basic version of purevideo decoder
• comes with mydvd from sonic
• install cd can check the internet for newer version for you
• purevideo and mydvd are optional installs and your not forced to put them in then uninstall
• installs really easy and has onscreen next step of setting up tv in mce
• minor adjusts available while looking at the image in mce.
• vcr timing option for those who use a vcr to capture tapes in mce.
• has a mce remote control version with real mce remote and ir receiver with ir emitters.

Cons:

• Only comes with cables for 1 stb.
• audio for stb is 3.5mm mini stereo plug so having a cable laying around for second stb is probably unlikely.
• a little pricey for tuner only but that single slot thing might negate this point.
• full profile only.  will not fit in low profile cases where the cards are vertical.  should fit with a riser though.
• not available in pci-express.

who should buy:

• Everyone
• Anyone making their first mce with oem disks.  This one purchase can get you 2 analog tuners, remote control with ir emitters, decoder and mydvd burning software.  pretty good value when you need all those things.
• anyone who can't get another tuner in because of slots.  Good single slot dual tuner.

In closing, anyone who tries to write up an article on this card and doesn't specific what setting the card is in just tossed it in and didn't adjust it for capture.  Lots of goodness in this card.

Nice report on the card!

More data for comparison purposes - NVidia published some PQA numbers.  I'm not sure how you quantify something so subjective, but apparently there is some fancy equipment out there than can give you some numbers.  I would expect this new card to be on-par with the PVR500 when on "best" settings, which seems to agree with the numbers below.

---

PQA image quality measurements are based on the Tektronix PQA300 analyzer, the "Cheers" television show reference content, and a Denon standalone DVD player model DVD-3910 with SDI output to PQA300.  MPEG2 files generated by the NTSC tuner boards are burned onto DVD-Video discs with ArcSoft ShowBiz2 without transcoding or transrating.  Lower PQA scores indicates better image quality.  Driver versions for DualTV, TV Wonder Elite, and PVR-500 MCE are 59.477, 6.14.10.66, and 2.0.30.23074, respectively.

Lower PQA scores indicate better image quality, ** indicates best in category.

NVidia DualTV
 PQA-Y best 6.95 **
 PQA-Y fair 7.43 **
 PQR-YC best 7.43
 PQR-YC fair 7.92 **

ATI TV Wonder Elite
 PQA-Y best 7.76
 PQA-Y fair 12.93
 PQR-YC best 8.26
 PQR-YC fair 13.58

Hauppauge PVR500
 PQA-Y best 6.95 **
 PQA-Y fair 11.63
 PQR-YC best 7.42 **
 PQR-YC fair 12.32

yeah there is equipment that can be used. I have some of it but in my case, I had a whole new mce setup and my tv is not dialed in yet so I have no comparison numbers to use.

However, I know for a fact the ati550 is using double the bitrate that mce tells it to and I would like to see a dead on comparison of all three cards with exactly the same bitrate being used for encoding. Also would be best if exactly the same clip was recorded but that gets tricky because of outside gear influence or line noise from distrib amps.

But my first impressions are holding true, I like the image on the 550s better. I like the convience of 1 slot of the nvdual. I also LOVE the audio being matched perfectly to HDTV broadcasts. That alone might be enough to say I'll use the pci slot instead of 2 pci-e slots.

I reg hacked mce last night to double the bitrate for encoding and I have a heavy recording night tonight. I have some saved shows from previous episodes of the same stuff on the 550 so I hope to come back tommorrow and give you my visual interpretation of the 2 cards.

Most reviews I have seen give the 550 top honors in image quality, so I would not be too suprised if this Nvidia card is not as good.  But I would hope that its in the ball park, or at least as good as my USB PVR2.  I should get my card tomorrow, hoping since I did not have a 550 previously I will be getting a step up in quality instead of a step down...I was wondering since I have never had a 550 card, are you using an ATI mpeg decoder with that or are you/can you use the PureVideo decoder with that as well?

most people prefer the hauppauge but only after tweaking it heavily to their liking. but I think the image quality difference between the 550 and hte nvdual is bitrate its compressing to.

Edited to add:
I think the nvdual card is skipping some steps and relying on purevideo hardware features. For instance, I dont think it can deinterlace the video. but purevideo can on the output and if your using something like an extender or a tv, they=n it doesn't need to interlace it again for output and that would provide the best results for that setup and going to an hdtv you probably have a dxva video card that can easily do it their. I don't think I can argue with the logic of not deinterlacing on capture..

This is my new favorite tuner.

I"m going ot change my mind about some things.  Also, being this is the only tuner with manufactuerer adjustments with mce, exactly what settings were those samples taken from? 

The card ships best with analog tv playback.  really nice playback, but on my lcd flat I wasn't thrilled. on the extender to an old crt tv, stunning.  Settings are mode, even the mode thats isf certified is marked but theres 5 others pro, cinema, hometheater/isf, normal, basic.  Noise reduction, color seperation, and timing (for vcrs).  once you get that magic mix of options, its a gorgious image. 

isf mode instantly made it look and act like the 550.   then you have the other settings to tweak around more.  I dont have a hauppauge to compare, sorry.

I didn't really go over the manual when I first did my write up.  This manual is a guide to setting up your mce.  not just these tuners, but a good guide to everything after you conencted it up.  Exactly how to fine tune your display with built in options, taking it one step further with how to tune purevideo, and then it goes into how to tune the input of the these cards.  its cenetered around an nvidia video card, but what your looking for is easier explained with good exmple pics.

the full manual is a pdf and may even be downloadable.  120 pages of how to setup mce tuners and get the best image using nvidia technology.  Written for a novice to be able to follow and understand and uses everythign found in mce to achieve it. 

I'm going to go back and edit my original writeup.  I left all the goodness out.

FYI: I was going to attach a screen shot, but I could tell it was capturing it pre-purevideo.  some parts of this tuner is left to the decoder to do if needed.  deinterlacing for example

I was taking part in the beta test of this cards and I am interested in getting the new version
of the driver shipped with the cards now. Can anybody who owns this card send me the driver and
the extensions?

Anyone know when a PAL version will be available?  Or if it is already where can I buy one?

Cheers