I recently got OptimumOnline's triple play package and speed booster. OOL has built in HDTV channels, over 22 free HDTV channels for free with its service. To get these channels you have to make sure you have the HDTV cable box and not the regular one. I don't have a HD compatible TV, but I figured why not get a TV Tuner card for my PC which can handle HDTV. Being a ATI fan I started researching the ATI HDTV card. It turned out that this card only supports OTA HDTV, in other words over the air transmissions. It comes with this ugly Antenna which picks up HD signals. These signals are stronger in larger cities. HDTV technology is quickly being adopted in the US and in the future the old TV transmissions will become obsolete and will be replaced by HDTV. So someone can get this TV Tuner and get HDTV for free without ever buying a HDTV. In my case this didn't help me much because I am already paying for OOL and want to take advantage of my built in HDTV service. So then I start looking at other HDTV cards. It turned out that the signal which will be provided by OOL will be a digital signal and most of these HDTV cards can only handle either OTA or Analog Cable.There are two major types of HDTV signals either ATSC or QAM. I asked OOL what type their signal is and they told me that its QAM (the dude was pronouncing it as quam).

After reading a whole lot of product reviews I found that there are only two TV Tuner cards on the market that can handle a digital HD signal. One card is Called Fusion III QAM HD TV Tuner, and the other is called MyHD PCI HDTV Tuner. The Fusion III is scarcely available while MyHD can be bought on buy.com for about $150. The product description states: "With MyHD you can watch both Digital and Analog TV broadcasts on your PC at an affordable price". In a review of the Fusion III it states that this card can only handle "unencypted QAM signals". When I asked the OOL rep if their HDTV is encrypted or not… he had no clue. I am willing to take the risk and see if this thing works. I will get the MyHD card and give it a shot. If it doesn't work Ill get the ATI HDTV card and settle having to use that ugly antenna for HDTV and analog cable. Someone who reviewed the MyHD card said "Some of the local HDTV channels came in through the QAM tuner, but not much else. The channel numbering system was very confusing, but this could all be due to Time Warner Cable". I wonder if I will have the same results with OOL. Support is also horrendous for these cards.. so its going to be hit or miss. If it doesnt work its being sent back immediately.

In the process of searching for HDTV cards I learned about some cool services/softwares such as WatchHDTV (free download), BeyondTV,and TitanTV Guide. These softwares can be used to watch and schedule recordings of HDTV.  It should also be noted that many of these cards don't have great compatability with the Windows Media Center Edition. If you have MCE make sure the card you get supports it and that when you install the card you dont use the CD that comes with it, but rather download the latest drivers from the Manufacturers site (this is advice I read again and again on newegg customer reviews).

In other geeky news PLUSDECK2C is a Cassette Deck to mp3 recorder that fits in a 5.25 inch drive bay! Anyone who has a crap load of cassettes they dont want to throw out has to get this thing! It only costs $80. Definitely seems worth it.

If you know anything about anything please leave a comment!!

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Filed under: Technology