DVB-T dual tuner card recommendations?

[roorooroo]

Hi, i am building a media centre for my Bro and he wants a dual tuner dvb-t card for it.
What's the best card out there..price and performance wise?
Can be either usb or pci. There's lots and lots out there and the choice is a bit overwhelming so recommendations would be appreciated.

Cheers, Roo

[Funkstar]

Hauppauge Nova-T 500 is pretty good. Seems popular as well, Scan are always running out of stock.

As far as i can tell, Hauppauge are the largest TV card vendor, certainaly in the UK, so support from third part applications is pretty much given. They also have relatively regular driver and software updates.

[roorooroo]

Cheers for all the info there Funkstar..much obliged. Will go have a peek at that one now.

Edit: Had a look and it seems pretty good although some problems too it seems gleaned from various forum posts around.

[Funkstar]

There is a limitation (i think it is with the Windows BDA drvier model) that means you can only have one card on a PCI card. The Nova-T 500 gets round this be essentially being a USB controller on the PCI bus and having two USB tuners connected to it.

There were driver issues to begin with (thats pretty much standard these days isn't it?). There were a number of posts on the MediaPortal forums at the time, but i haven't heard of any problems recently.

It's worth remembering the dates of posts when you see driver problems

[roorooroo]

Cheers yes thats true..on a related matter, does anyone if any of the dvb-t cards have remotes that are media centre compatible?

[Agent]

A few do, but they are very select.
You pretty much need to buy the MS remote kit.

The ones that emulate a keyboard / keypresses do not cover all of media centres features. MS have 'locked' some features to their remotes.
I found out the hard way!

[Funkstar]

yeah, the MS remote is the best. I've had a couple of "Media Center compatible" remotes that are anything but.

They cost more, but they are well worth it and are actually damned good remites and well put together.

[smallstool]

I have 3 Hauppauge Nova-T PCI cards.

I have 2 in a linux mythtv - which works great.

The other I have in my Vista pc and works perfectly with media centre.

Only problem is they take up a pci slot each (but are 100% reliable).

[roorooroo]

Thanks a lot everyone..most helpful. I think I am going to go for the Nova-T and a genuine media centre remote..looking around for best deals now

[s_kinton]

I use a Pinnacle Dual DVB-T Pro card and can recommend it. There are drivers out for all versions of windows, with regular updates. I've not had a single issue with mine.

If I were you I'd look at the Hauppague and the Pinnacle and just buy the cheapest you can find of the 2.

I use the Microsoft remote too. Its a must have really.

[Toobad]

I'll fly the flag for the Compro Videomate E-700. It is a PCI-e card. It has WHQL-certified drivers, even for Vista64 which I specifically wanted. I never explored the bundled software and remote as Media Centre does all I need. Got mine from Scan on a "Today Only" for £55.

[roorooroo]

Thanks, will look at those two before ordering tomorrow.