All-In-Wonder vs. stand-alone TV tuner cards

[saturnotaku]

In the next couple months, I will be moving. Once I get settled into my new digs, I'd like to be able to use my PC for as many multimedia functions as possible. That includes watching and recording cable or satellite (DirecTV) television, playing my Xbox and future 360 as well as regular PC gaming (though nothing terribly intense). I'd like to do all of this on my LCD monitor so I don't have to purchase a new TV.

I'm kind of leaning toward the All-In-Wonder, but I'm also open to suggestions for standalone TV tuner cards that are capable of all the functions described above. I'd take a Personal Cinema card if NVIDIA made one based a 6800-series or better GPU, but that's apparently not happening. PVR functionality with satellite compatibility is a prime consideration as I likely will not be using Comcast for my cable TV. Products should support watching TV in a window so I can multitask at the same time.

Suggestions/recommendations are appreciated.

[lightman]

Provided I'm not so sure it flawlessly work with DirecTV (but it should, I don't see any reason it shouldn't), I'd suggest you to try out a Hauppauge WinTV-NEXUS-S or a WinTV-NOVA-S receiver.

I've never been a fan of AiW cards. I think having two separate gfx card and tv-card is a way better solution. First off, you can upgrade one without having to upgrade the other. Secondly, you don't risk to find your driver stagnant after some time; that is, it happened that one AiW card has been left completely unsupported...

Moreover, you can use, if you like, more than one dtv-receiver card so as to be able to record two programs at once. Or even three... ;)

While I don't have any first hand experience with the two Hauppauge cards I suggested, I used a number of Hauppauge WinTV-PVR (analog) cards, and they've been absolutely GREAT.

And, last but not least, this way you have a much broader choice of gfx cards... ;)

[OWA]

I initially went the AIW route but I upgrade so often, I decided not to do it that way this time. Keeping them separate, I can upgrade the video card as often as I like.

I don't really have any recommendations on other products though. I've mainly only used AIWs and now the ATI HDTV Wonder. I have a very old Hauppauge WinTV card and I didn't like it all that much but like I said, it's really old and things have probably changed quite a bit since then.

Edit: To clarify, with my old WinTV, the card was fine and it worked fine. I just didn't like the software that came with it.

[seeker]

I only have the Hauppauge Win TV Go card, which works fairly well, except that it picks up some kind of interference within the PC itself. Even my regular TV has to be placed away from the PC, or it has the same problem, so I don't know what to blame for this. I had a similar card, years ago, in another PC and it worked fine.

[Kojiro]

The advantage of getting an AIW is the fact you get top of the line Graphics Exceleration, Hardware DVD playback, and a TVTuner all in one package.

If you do't need to have the best graphics, you can get an AIW 9800 Pro for 199. This is a great deal, The 9800 Pro is still pretty fast and you get a highend TV tuner and video capture card but it's all in one card.

That's why it's called The All in Wonder. If you already got a faster card than the 9800 pro. ATI has the TV wonder USB 2.0 as well and will set you back 100 bucks. You get all Tuner and TV capturing features of the AIW but you can have a Nvida video card if that is your wish. The best thing is that you don't even have to open your PC to install it.

Note don't get the AIW 2006 edition if you have the choice to get a AIW 9800 Pro. AIW 2006 uses 9600 XT. They added 256 MB to make it look better to fools who don't know that the 9800 Pro can stomp a mudd hole in the 9600 XT no matter how much memory ATI gives it.