Add multiple TV tuners to your Media PC

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I first built my Media PC with a single tuner even though I knew I probably would want to add more later.  With my cable DVR I had grown accustomed to having two tuners, so it was hard going back to only one.  Fortunately, with Windows Media Center, adding tuners is easy (and cheap).

Why two tuners?  Even though I rarely record two programs at once, it is nice to know you can.  Even more likely is that I'll want to watch a program while another is recording.  Of course, you can also record two programs and watch any pre-recorded content you like (or any web-content for that matter).  You can even go crazy and add up to 4 digital tuners (that should be enough for most people!).

So, what is the cheapest way to add more tuners?  Turns out that a company called AverMedia makes a dual digital TV tuner for about $60!  If this dual tuner won't work for you (see below), there are alternatives at about twice the price (still not bad).

So, go ahead and supersize your Media PC with multiple tuners!  Here is how I did it.

Selecting a Digital TV tuner

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All you need to receive and watch Digital TV is a tuner and an antenna.  New TVs made for the US market include a digital TV tuner (also called an ATSC tuner).  If your current TV says it has ATSC support, you can watch digital TV directly this way.

However, if you are used to a Tivo or Digital Video Recorder you will be really unhappy not being able to pause, record or place-shift your TV programming.

The great news is that you can pick up an ATSC tuner for your computer really cheap and get started enjoying digital TV right away with all of the features you want.  This works great on laptops as well (a great option for camping / travel).  This is why I bought a tuner and later I was able to use it in my full featured Media PC project.

Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick - getting started with digital TV the easy way

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One of the easiest ways to get started with digital TV is with a cheap USB tuner package.  If you don't already have an antenna or TV that can accept Digital TV, you may want to try one of these.  Assuming you have a computer (laptop, etc), this package contains everything you need.

I am using Pinacle's PCTV HD Pro Stick.  It contains:

• USB tuner (the little black dongle in the upper left)
• Indoor retractable "whip" antenna (and short cable)
• Handy remote control
• Software that runs on your Windows Computer

I originally bought one of these thinking that I would use it for camping (way before the switchover to Digital TV became mandatory).  Little did I know that it already Digital TV support built in and suddenly became really useful to me.

First let's talk about what this tuner can do.  It has support for four major broadcast standards in the US:

• ATSC = Broadcast Digital TV
• NTSC = Broadcast Analog TV or Analog Cable
• ClearQAM = unscrambled Digital Cable
• FM = Analog FM radio, not the new HD Radio

Don't worry about the cryptic names, all we care about is for this test is that it supports ATSC (Digital TV).

The software that comes with it is called Pinnacle Systems' TVCenter Pro 5.4.  Just download the latest version or install it from the CDs provided.  I don't recommend using this software over something more powerful (like Windows Media Center), but for getting started purposes it works just fine.