I've found that there's a lack of HDTV tuner card reviews, so hopefully this might help someone looking into building an HTPC with an OTA HDTV card.
I've spent maybe 3-4 months researching, and about the last 2 months putting together the parts, installing software, and testing my HTPC. I actually started with the regular Fusion 5 Gold card a month ago, but I returned it and gotten the RT, so I have a little experience with both.
Spec-wise both cards are nearly identical. The only difference is that the RT card provides a jumper to switch between "SW" and "PME" mode (more on this later) as well front panel pass thru connector for the power switch. Also the regular version of the card comes with a USB IR receiver, whereas the RT receiver plugs into the a/v dongle which plugs into the back of the card itself. The remote itself is the same.
System Setup:
Intel P4 Prescott 3.0E
Asus P4P800 SE
1GB of Corsair ValueSelect (dual channel)
XFX Geforce 6600GT (drv 81.89 winxpmce)
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 (1045 non-mce)
FusionHDTV 5 RT Gold Plus PCI (drv 3.30.01)
Windows XP MCE (with SP2, RU2, and lated winupdates as of 2006-03-24)
Purevideo 1.02-196
Installation:
This is a long story, so I'll skip to the chase. I've installed the OS and the card well over 20 times it seems. Initially, all was fine and the fusion card worked well with its own FusionHDTV software as well as MCE 2005. But I had ALOT of stability problems. The system would crash or hang spontaneously. Sometimes when launching MCE, sometimes when switching channels, often the system will freeze while "shutting down". Note that most of the problems occur while running the MCE app, but I've also experienced crashing with the FusionHDTV app while changing channels or even autoscanning channels. I browsed through forum after forum, thread after thread, tech support, etc. I learned the following:
1. Fusion card does not like sharing IRQs, especially with the graphics card
2. Certain drivers, tuner, sound, vid card, may have problems with Hyper Threading
3. Dvico recommends setting the HAL from "ACPI Multiprocessor PC" to "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC". This would in fact disable windows from using virtual IRQs 16 and above. But this would also increase the chances of #1 happening.
4. MCE seems to be confused with the analog tuner on the Fusion card and on the Hauppauge card. Recommended to disable the "Crossbar" driver, and in more extreme cases disable the "WDM Tuner" driver. Doing the latter will also prevent those pesky "TV Tuner Malfunction" messages from appearing in the application event log, but will also prevent the FusionHDTV software from working entirely.
In the end, I ended up spending alot of time swapping PCI slots trying to isolatethe Fusion card with its own IRQ, ultimately removing my SB Audigy card altogether and using the on board sound. I also disabled HT, reinstalled MCE 2005 while forcing the HAL to the lower ACPI, and disabled the Crossbar driver. System is 95% stable now, although occasionally when switching channels, I experience a reception hiccup (drops below 70%), MCE will freeze. I then have to kill the process with task manager, and manually kill the ehRecvr.exe.
RT Functionality?:
On the card, there's a jumper to switch between "SW" and "PME" modes. Both of these options basically allow the Fusion card to power on your PC when its off. "PME" stands for Power Management Event, and just requires a compatible motherboard (any semi modern mobo will do) and "Wake on PCI devices" set to enabled in the bios. "SW" is a hardware workaround where you plug your case's the front panel power switch cable to the card, then a provided 2 pin cable from the card to the motherboard. Why does the card need to power on the system? Well remember that the remote control receiver is now connected to the card itself and instead of a USB port. You basically achieve the same with the regular fusion card if you enabled the +5vsb jumper on the motherboard for the usb port connected to the IR receiver.
The fusion card may also be able to power on the system on a timer when used with the Titan EPG, but thats conjecture because I didn't test it. I only wanted to use MCE 2005 for its WAF user friendliness.
Operation:
I'll agree with what most Fusion users generally say, in that, when the card works, its great. I've been able to power on and off the system from the remote. I would launch MCE, watch TV, record shows. I've put the system in standby, and it would automatically wake up and record shows on schedule. Picture quality is great and signal strength is generally strong.
I still suffer the occasional crash in MCE. The weird part is that mce would crash, and I'd hit some buttons on the remote, but nothing registers. I then reboot, and as soon as I log back into windows, those buttons I pressed were somehow queued and they start to register, doing stuff like launching applications and navigating menus.
Another quirk I've found: I disable the WDM tuner to see if that if that would fix my stablity issues, but soon found that doing that would also disable the remote control. I guess that that must be the device/driver that controls the IR receiver which now that it plugs into the card.
Conclusion:
All in all, the card works great and I'm satisfied with it. When it works, it works well. I keep complaining about crashes, but they are not as frequent as it would seem; realistically more like once or twice a week.
The RT version of the card doesn't really offer anything over the regular version. in retrospect, I think I would have preferred the regular version for the usb IR receiver. That way I can disable the WDM tuner to see if that made a difference. And the remote would still be functional even if the card has hung. The RT's IR receiver is alot smaller and easier to hide however.
Installation is a headache, but I hope this review may help some people with similar issues. My biggest gripe is disabling HT, which judging from past cpu comparisons accounts for a 10-15% boost in system performance (at least in thread-aware applications). Hopefully driver updates would soon remedy this.
MCE 2005 wasn't intended to be installed by the end user, and there are gotchas at every corner. As forum user Cgsheen summed it up well, "the biggest reason I've had such success with all my FusionHDTV tuners is: I built my HTPC's around them. I used only "known good" hardware and software whenever and wherever possible."
In the end, it works, and it's currently undergoing the WAF test trial period, but looks like it will pass, so all is good.
For anyone building an HTPC, consider using Symantec Ghost or Acronis True Image. I can't imagine how much time I would have lost/wasted if I had to reinstalled windows from ground up every time I wanted a fresh start.
I've spent maybe 3-4 months researching, and about the last 2 months putting together the parts, installing software, and testing my HTPC. I actually started with the regular Fusion 5 Gold card a month ago, but I returned it and gotten the RT, so I have a little experience with both.
Spec-wise both cards are nearly identical. The only difference is that the RT card provides a jumper to switch between "SW" and "PME" mode (more on this later) as well front panel pass thru connector for the power switch. Also the regular version of the card comes with a USB IR receiver, whereas the RT receiver plugs into the a/v dongle which plugs into the back of the card itself. The remote itself is the same.
System Setup:
Intel P4 Prescott 3.0E
Asus P4P800 SE
1GB of Corsair ValueSelect (dual channel)
XFX Geforce 6600GT (drv 81.89 winxpmce)
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 (1045 non-mce)
FusionHDTV 5 RT Gold Plus PCI (drv 3.30.01)
Windows XP MCE (with SP2, RU2, and lated winupdates as of 2006-03-24)
Purevideo 1.02-196
Installation:
This is a long story, so I'll skip to the chase. I've installed the OS and the card well over 20 times it seems. Initially, all was fine and the fusion card worked well with its own FusionHDTV software as well as MCE 2005. But I had ALOT of stability problems. The system would crash or hang spontaneously. Sometimes when launching MCE, sometimes when switching channels, often the system will freeze while "shutting down". Note that most of the problems occur while running the MCE app, but I've also experienced crashing with the FusionHDTV app while changing channels or even autoscanning channels. I browsed through forum after forum, thread after thread, tech support, etc. I learned the following:
1. Fusion card does not like sharing IRQs, especially with the graphics card
2. Certain drivers, tuner, sound, vid card, may have problems with Hyper Threading
3. Dvico recommends setting the HAL from "ACPI Multiprocessor PC" to "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC". This would in fact disable windows from using virtual IRQs 16 and above. But this would also increase the chances of #1 happening.
4. MCE seems to be confused with the analog tuner on the Fusion card and on the Hauppauge card. Recommended to disable the "Crossbar" driver, and in more extreme cases disable the "WDM Tuner" driver. Doing the latter will also prevent those pesky "TV Tuner Malfunction" messages from appearing in the application event log, but will also prevent the FusionHDTV software from working entirely.
In the end, I ended up spending alot of time swapping PCI slots trying to isolatethe Fusion card with its own IRQ, ultimately removing my SB Audigy card altogether and using the on board sound. I also disabled HT, reinstalled MCE 2005 while forcing the HAL to the lower ACPI, and disabled the Crossbar driver. System is 95% stable now, although occasionally when switching channels, I experience a reception hiccup (drops below 70%), MCE will freeze. I then have to kill the process with task manager, and manually kill the ehRecvr.exe.
RT Functionality?:
On the card, there's a jumper to switch between "SW" and "PME" modes. Both of these options basically allow the Fusion card to power on your PC when its off. "PME" stands for Power Management Event, and just requires a compatible motherboard (any semi modern mobo will do) and "Wake on PCI devices" set to enabled in the bios. "SW" is a hardware workaround where you plug your case's the front panel power switch cable to the card, then a provided 2 pin cable from the card to the motherboard. Why does the card need to power on the system? Well remember that the remote control receiver is now connected to the card itself and instead of a USB port. You basically achieve the same with the regular fusion card if you enabled the +5vsb jumper on the motherboard for the usb port connected to the IR receiver.
The fusion card may also be able to power on the system on a timer when used with the Titan EPG, but thats conjecture because I didn't test it. I only wanted to use MCE 2005 for its WAF user friendliness.
Operation:
I'll agree with what most Fusion users generally say, in that, when the card works, its great. I've been able to power on and off the system from the remote. I would launch MCE, watch TV, record shows. I've put the system in standby, and it would automatically wake up and record shows on schedule. Picture quality is great and signal strength is generally strong.
I still suffer the occasional crash in MCE. The weird part is that mce would crash, and I'd hit some buttons on the remote, but nothing registers. I then reboot, and as soon as I log back into windows, those buttons I pressed were somehow queued and they start to register, doing stuff like launching applications and navigating menus.
Another quirk I've found: I disable the WDM tuner to see if that if that would fix my stablity issues, but soon found that doing that would also disable the remote control. I guess that that must be the device/driver that controls the IR receiver which now that it plugs into the card.
Conclusion:
All in all, the card works great and I'm satisfied with it. When it works, it works well. I keep complaining about crashes, but they are not as frequent as it would seem; realistically more like once or twice a week.
The RT version of the card doesn't really offer anything over the regular version. in retrospect, I think I would have preferred the regular version for the usb IR receiver. That way I can disable the WDM tuner to see if that made a difference. And the remote would still be functional even if the card has hung. The RT's IR receiver is alot smaller and easier to hide however.
Installation is a headache, but I hope this review may help some people with similar issues. My biggest gripe is disabling HT, which judging from past cpu comparisons accounts for a 10-15% boost in system performance (at least in thread-aware applications). Hopefully driver updates would soon remedy this.
MCE 2005 wasn't intended to be installed by the end user, and there are gotchas at every corner. As forum user Cgsheen summed it up well, "the biggest reason I've had such success with all my FusionHDTV tuners is: I built my HTPC's around them. I used only "known good" hardware and software whenever and wherever possible."
In the end, it works, and it's currently undergoing the WAF test trial period, but looks like it will pass, so all is good.
For anyone building an HTPC, consider using Symantec Ghost or Acronis True Image. I can't imagine how much time I would have lost/wasted if I had to reinstalled windows from ground up every time I wanted a fresh start.
Does any hardware do that in MCE or is that a limitation on MS's part?
