Ntsc/atsc/qam Pci Digital Tv Watch & Record Digital HDtv On Pc

This is my second ATSC Tuner card. The first one was Happauge HVR1600. I bought the Happauge first based on reviews and reputation, but boy was I disappointed. While the anlog part work just fine, ATSC performance was dismal at best. It picked up only 4 of 16 digital stations my Samsung ATSC Tuner boxes were getting. This is using the same feed, from CM4221 UHF antenna mounted in attic.

After the disappointment with Happauge, I became very skeptical of similar products and gambled on Kworld PCI-115 which was almost cheapest around. The reason I got Kworld is because of "analog tuner". Happauge model uses "digital tuner" for ATSC tuning, and I've heard of digital tuner problems years ago, but did not expect the problem would be still there.

Anyway, Kworld PCI 115 picked up all my stations just fine, and did so much more quickly. I've heard of complaints about bundled software, but to be frank it was a lot more solid and user friendly than WinTV software which came with Happauge product. Kworld claims MCE support, but I couldn't get it to work with ATSC tuner. However, it didn't matter much since the bundled TotalMedia software was surprisingly useful.

To top it off, I did not even have to use internet based TV guide service which normally charges you money, since all EPG guide came in from the OTA antenna via video stream. After few days of use, I was very satisfied with performance and feature. Recordings were made on time perfectly everytime, playback didn't have any issues, and tuning was no problem. Overall responsiveness with tuning, etc was actually better than a dedicated tuner box from Samsung.

The product is not perfect. The playback quality isn't quite as smooth as the dedicated ATSC tuner box I have. However, this can be fixed by using other software to playback recorded TV shows, since they are either MPEG1 or MPEG2 streams any player can play. Other than that, I couldn't really find any fault since it does exactly everthing I wanted it to do. Tune ATSC OTA channels and record them. PBS carries enough content for myself and my son (4years old) and recording capability really makes OTA ATSC a viable alternative to paied Cable or satellite service.

I must question why the previous reviewer complains about playback problem on a slower computer since it is a well known fact that MPEG2 HD streams require fast computer and product states it as a requirement.

Also, comparison against MyHD is not fair at all. MyHD MSRP is over $300 and useable package retails for $250. I can get a decent CPU plus Kworld 115 for that price, and having a decent CPU can let me do more with other tasks.

Again, this is a good buy. It has been a while since I was this much satisfied with a computer product.

Although software from Microsoft doesn't acknowlege the possibility of digital channels on cable, this does come with ArcSoft's "Total Media 3".
Total Media 3 was discontinued early in 2007, before Windows Vista came out, but does work (with some glitches) if your PC has Windows Xp.

Unlike the Kworld PCI-120 card that came out later (it's lo-profile, for "Pizza box" cases) this PCI-115 can run with other DVR software, including DVR software for Linux.

The MyHD card by MIT (MacroImageTechnology) is the one that can process digital channels on-board (an ancient 400Mhz Pentium II PC can work) but costs more, all other cards off-load digital channel decoding to a fast Pentium4 CPU (or better), this one included. I got "sputtering" sound watching the PBS HD Showcase channel until I replaced my CPU with a faster one.