HTPC TV Card Advice

[AsphyxiA]

ok I'm not a pro when it comes to tv cards.
My friend and I are building a htpc. Basically we want to have the ability to watch DTV AND record DTV at the same time. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116015 this is the card we're looking at getting. Do we need to buy a second card to do this or will the card support both?
oh and the setup
-----------------------
New stuff:
ASRockA780GMH
AMD Toleman x3 2.1GHZ
OCZ 4GB kit @ 1067
LG BD-ROM x6
Old stuff:
Antec 900 case w/ quiet fans
TTGI 550 watt PSU
2x750GB seagates
2x1TB seagates
Creative XFI extreme audio pci

 

[BroBQ]

With that card you can watch standard TV and record DTV, or watch DTv and record standard TV. To do what you want, you need 2 of them

btw, that is a great card.

 

[AsphyxiA]

i figured. That would be fine though, how would I connect them though?

 

[BroBQ]

use a splitter from your cable in to two cables out for standard TV and get yourself a really good HDTV antenna and do the same thing with the splitter.

Vista Media center can only recieve OTA DTV - If you wanna pick up ClearQAM channels from your cable company use this:

ftp://ftp.shspvr.com/download/mce_clear_qam/mceclearqam-plugin.zip

Its a bit tricky to install, but it works once you get it setup. After all of this... run your regular media center setup and all your standard cable and HDTV channels will be added in automaticly

 

[AsphyxiA]

I was actually planning on setting up the system with Debian and MythTV. This will support ClearQAM will it not? Yeah, were already looking into a Roswell antenna for local channels. As long as we can at least record over-the-air and watch hd from cable, were good!

 

[BroBQ]

I don't think MythTV supports it eaither, but I could be wrong. I am using a rosewill hdtv ant. from newegg (will try and find the link) ands its GREAT!

 

[AsphyxiA]

got it saved already, 14 bucks ain't bad LOL

 

[BroBQ]

No, its not... just out of curiosity, what choose MythTV over Media Center?

 

[AsphyxiA]

I'm a big fan of linux! I run a Gentoo box all the time and have been running linux for years. Just seems natural to me to move to a linux environment over a Windows one. Plus, since the box will be setup as a media server as well, it made even more sense.

I looked at the MythTV wiki and it said that the card supports QAM however, it does not support NTSC (analog). I did find a completely open source card and it actually looks promising. http://www.pchdtv.com/

Also, we plan on going with a mobo with onboard video mostly because we won't be doing an gaming, primarily tv and if we were to game, it would probably just be old school PS1 and N64 games. But, what are your recommendations for video ATI or nvidia. Both are pretty well supported in linux, and I can install drivers just as easily in either one. so... should I go with an ati 3200, or nvidia 8200?

 

[Static~Charge]

I'm a big fan of linux! I run a Gentoo box all the time and have been running linux for years. Just seems natural to me to move to a linux environment over a Windows one. Plus, since the box will be setup as a media server as well, it made even more sense.

Be sure to check out Mythbuntu - Ubuntu with MythTV preinstalled. It can save you a lot of headache.

 

[AsphyxiA]

also, sound card. Were gonna need one cause on board isn't going to cut it. I chose the motherboard based on there being an HDMI port. However, in my search, I found that the 3200 only support 1.5 surround. So lets say I get an Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 and run the video through to this card (possible???). Would I still be able to achieve 7.1 surround? I know that HDMI is not supported through ALSA right now, however, there is an effort to do so. We would also be running onboard (uh) till we decide to get the card.