I am a newbie to VMC but I just completed a build using an Asus PE9400 & I am thoroughly disappointed by the lack of reception of OTA digital channels. My Philips HDTV receives all 5 available OTA channels & sub channels perfectly in all weather conditions, but the Asus card on the same antenna connection gets only 1 channel reliably.

I have searched & searched & all I can find on-line are comparisons of features, compatibility and picture quality, nowhere have I found any comparisons based on the card's ability to receve OTA channels.

I want to get a card that will recieve better but I don't want to go on a buying spree just to find out which one is best so please reply with your card model & a comment on how well it recieves OTA ATSC channels, please leave the quality, compatibility, & features discussion for other threads.

My card = Asus PE9400 combo
Reception = poor as compared to other devices on the same antenna. 1/5

You haven't specifically described your setup.  There could be more at play than just your card.

I have 2 Hauppauge HVR-1600s, Hauppauge HVR-2250 and a Silicon Dust HDHomerun and they all work fine.

Antenna > 50 ft run of RG6 > inline amp > APC UPS > 4 way splitter (2 to HVR-1600s, 1 to HVR-2250, 1 to 2 way splitter to HD Homerun).

The only issues I have run into were bad antenna positioning on my part.  I have an outdoor directional antenna.

The Silicon Dust HDHomerun is nice because it comes with software that will let you monitor signal strength, signal quality and symbol quality - giving you the ability to troubleshoot your antenna and cables more easily.  I have not looked at the Hauppauge software.

Well what I was looking for is more of a "how well does it tune on the same antenna as your other digital tuners" kinda thing, so I could get a sense more about how the different tuners tune on a level playing field, i.e. on the same antenna hookup good or bad.
As it is however, I have a 120" UHF/VHF antenna yagi style UHF with a channel master mast mounted amp with separate UHF & VHF inputs & a combined output on a 38' tower. The downlead is RG6 coax & I'd estimate it at about 50' to the Philips powered splitter, then another 10' +/- to the tv & computer.

Frankly, I'd start looking at something wrong in the antenna system/coax/pre-amp. 

I've used many cards and they all seem to perform pretty much identically to my TV's tuner.  I have not however tried a Philips card so I cant comment on whether it's worse or not.

Cards I've used: A180, M780, Catseye DT150, Catseye 164e, Fusion 5, HDTV wonder.  And they've all been more or less the same in reception capabilities.

Could be that you have a wonky card too.

If you're looking to buy a card, The A180 is a rock solid workhorse. While its not the newest kid on the block, it always comes through.

Also, you have to manually add the subchannels just in case you didnt know this.

 

It isn't the antenna, as I said, but maybe not that clearly, with the exact same connection, i.e. taking the cable off the TV & hooking it up to the PC card I get much better reception from the TV than the PC card.
Since my first post I've found people raving about the HD Homerun external tuner as being able to pull in channels better than internal tuners they've used & was thinking maybe electrical noise inside the computer from the cooling fans etc. is interfering with the internal tuner?

Also what is your tv & how old is it (mine is only 2 months old)? I'm asking to see if  maybe the tuning quality is improving in the tv tuners ahead of the cards.
I also meant to say that it is interesting to see that you've not seen any significant difference between the tuner cards you have used & your tv tuner, this is the type of info I've been looking for.

You know, it could also be you live in one of the unlucky areas where the channel information in MCE is wrong. Just how bad is the signal strength. If you go to the signal screen screen how many bars do you see for the stations?  If you only see 1 red bar while your other TV gets perfect reception, that could be an indication that the channel info is bad.

Take a look in atscchannels.xml and see if all the frequencies are right.
http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/pnear/archive/2006/09/12/202708.aspx

Actually it was wrong for 1 channel, it was missing completely & that happens to be the channel it receives the best. That channel actually wasn't in the scan list so I added it manually, however the other 3 must have the correct guide info because I do get spotty reception, just not watchable.
There is one channel that it is not receiving at all & it normally has a very good signal. I'll bet that channel has the wrong frequency in the guide since in late Jan. they switched from UHF 17 back to VHF 10.

I don't understand, what do you mean spotty reception?  Hopefully you are not trying to pull in analog signals and if they are digital, either you get them or don't.  Their really isn't an in-between.  If you are using the media center signal strength as a guide, I wouldn't as sometimes mine says good reception and sometimes medium, but has no effect on the video.

I have the HVR-1600 and I can say that it's no were near as good as my $40 government coupon digital receiver. Like you I used the exact same cable for the computer and the rca tuner, no splitters. I just unplug from computer and plug into the rca tuner.

The RCA tuner picks up all channels at any time of day with 50-60% quality yet the video never breaks up. The HVR-1600 shows 5/5 bars but seems very sensitive to noise and often the feed is unwatchable. This tends to happen around 12pm-5pm mostly. All channels are usually just fine at other times. I have yet to find the source of the noise. However, my dishwasher and microwave cause serious signal issues while it's running. My antenna is about 5 feet away from those appliances. I would move the antenna if it wasn't already in the one location in my yard that works reliably.

I've just accepted that PC tuners just aren't as reliable. But given the 50% signal I am not surprised. I'm mostly surprised the cheap tuner works so well.

My suggestion to you I suppose is to try to get the best signal you possibly can. Position the antenna using your TVs tuner since the media center signal monitor is useless.

"I don't understand, what do you mean spotty reception?"
I guess you don't live in a fringe area, spotty reception is like watching a really bad slideshow while listening to the audio on a first generation digital cell phone with 1 bar service... ca- --u -e-r- m- n-w?

Yes I have given up on the PC tuner, it seems like either people have digital cable or they live in perfect reception zones because there is virtually no discussion about this problem anywhere. I can use the rotator to help the signal, but that won't help if I want to record something while the antenna is pointed elsewhere. It just seems like if my converter box & TV can get all the stations in one spot this should too.
BTW here is the response from ASUS tech help, it is like they didn't even read my message:
"I had the same issue with a different card. It seemed to be the loaction of the antenna. When I moved it, it works well. "
Basically go take a hike.

The main thing is to get your antenna up as high as possible, then move it from side to side to get out of multipath caused by hills, trees, etc. Multipath is also called "ghosting" when watching analog TV - that's the best way to detect it, tune into an adjacent analog channel and move the antenna to minimize ghosts.

PC tuners vary in sensitivity but especially in multipath rejection. My Avermedia A180s are not nearly as good at rejecting multipath as my 2-yr old Sony TV. In general, newer tuner designs are better than older - the chipsets must be improving.

My Hauppauge 2250 dual tuner seemed to have comparatively great reception when the driver cooperated. If you can get it to work in your system, it might be a good choice at about $110.

May be a stupid question, but I get these syptoms with certain drivers on my video card.  have you tried rolling back your driver on your video card?  What does MC say your strength/quality of signal is?  Is it yellow or red or green?  How many bars do you have? 

Oh, and I live halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee, so I am on the "fringe" of the serviceable area and my antenna is in my attic, which doesn't help.

It is on an antenna tower & I have a rotator but none of that matters to my original post topic, the interesting info to me is about the relative comparison of how your pc tuner card tunes relative to other tuners on the same signal such as your comments on the Hauppauge & Avermedia tuners.
I don't think I'll be throwing any more money at the HTPC for a while unless I see clear evidence of a superior product.