best way to add a tv tuner?

[jsklar]

so i've had my t43 for a couple months and just bought a used Dock II (only $120 shipped) ... I want to add a tv-tuner with PVR because i'm hardly gonna have time to catch some shows on time between classes.

am i better off with a USB 2.0 tuner or a PCMCIA card? Or does anyone know of a decent tv tuner that would fit in a half-size PCI slot? Time shift and real time MPEG4 are the two main features i'm looking for...

thanks

[ThinkPad]

I was thinking of using this
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=15012

[smstewart_9554]

WinTV-PVR-150MCE l.p. (http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products ... 150lp.html) is a half heighth tv tuner card, but it encodes mpeg2 not mpeg4. As a note, it is designed for XP Media Center Edition, but I think I remember reading somewhere that it could be used with non Media Center's but doesn't come with software nor a remote.

Shaun

[JHaislet]

Your in luck! I loaded MCE 2005 on my T43 & using the Dock II, I added the Haupauge PVR-150 and the Microsoft MCE Remote (from newegg) and it works great.

I did have an occasional stuttering issue when watching TV at the best quality due to the time-shift function (it needs a total of 16MB's of sequential read/write to the hdd; I think a fast 100GB 7200 HDD would fix the issue) due to both the live stream being 8MB's in quality and the 30min buffer it stores for time shift also being an 8MB's stream, both being buffered on the hdd at the same time.

Also, with recording settings set at 4-6MB's, I can't even tell a difference in quality (which is very good btw); I've looked really close too.

Overall, I've been really pleased with MCE 2005 which is basically Media Center sitting on top XP SP2. I did have to use the X300 drivers from Windows Update, as they're the only ones that work with MCE (IBM's would only work in 4bit color & they weren't for MCE).

Finally getting a TV in my room is also nice (external 17" LCD monitor) and the remote works really well. I also downloaded a free program from www.thegreenbutton.com which allows my T43 MCE to get recorded shows & movies off the MCE 2005 machine in the living room, and it streams it over the wireless lan which is also pretty cool.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[jsklar]

thanks...are there other half-height tv tuners or would you say that the wintv one is the best bet?

also, would the pvr250 fit as well?

[danny_isr]

I was thinking of using this
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=15012

how much is it and who sell them ?

thanks

[JHaislet]

This is the exact card I have in my Dock II. It's a standard size/height PCI card (not the half-height).

For other MCE type programs, MediaPortal looks & behaves just like MCE 2005 and is FREE. It runs on top a standard XP SP2 install, just like any other application and it supports all the Hauppauge cards.
http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815116625

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage ... 625-04.JPG

Also, if you purchase the regular PVR-150 (NOT the MCE Edition), it comes with Hauppauges own WinTV software and an IR remote control, which allows you to watch & record TV using Hauppauges software (so you don't need Media Center 2005 installed).

Regarding size, both the PVR-350 and PVR-500 were too long to fit in the Dock II PCI slot (I've got a PVR-500 in my main media center & it just wouldn't fit). I'm not sure if the PVR-250 would fit, but it might, since it's also a single tuner card like the PVR-150. However, the PVR-150 is actually a newer design than the PVR-250 and the 150 uses the newer Connexant "Blackbird" encoder.