Introduction, Continued

Introduction, Continued

You don’t really get a sense of how far the technology has come since the last generation of TV tuner/capture cards until you look at the tuner capsule from the previous generation and the M780. Some measurements will help to set the stage, after which we’ll provide a very telling photo :

The HDTV and SDTV tuner capsules on the M780 are the same size, with dimensions of 0.78125" x 0.986785" x .09375" (19.84 mm x 25.06 mm x 2.4 mm). Choosing a favorite from the preceding generation, the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE, we find only an NTSC module on that card. (The WinTV-PVR-500 MCE has two tuners, but both are NTSC Models identical to the one on the PVR-150.) Here we get the following dimensions : 1.4375" x 2.71875" x 0.5625" (36.51mm x 69.06mm x 14.29mm).

This difference might not sound or look too impressive, but consider that the volume of the new tuner capsules is only 3.3% of that for the old tuner capsules, and you get a sense that some real advancements have occurred in technology since the older cards were first introduced in 2001-2002. There are lots of potential pay-offs here : significantly lower power consumption, less heat production, and significant improvements for on-board codecs and signal processing capabilities. The photo of the two cards cheek by jowl illustrates what’s going on here quite nicely.

In two dimensions, the Hauppauge capsule fits nearly three sets of both M780 capsules ; in thickness, it’s almost six to one !

Just from the standpoint of waste heat, anybody who’s worked around the Hauppauge cards knows how many calories they can crank out when the tuners are active. In fact, we once had to abandon using a PVR-500 dual tuner card in a passively cooled HTPC, because the unit would overheat within 15 minutes every time both tuners were in use. (The unit worked with a single tuner PVR-150, but registered temperatures at or above 140° F / 60° C inside the case while recording or watching TV.)

In systems better ventilated than those using passive cooling, it’s not unusual to measure temperatures in the 104-122°F (40-50° C) range on the surface of the Hauppauge NTSC tuner capsule. While we were using both tuners on the M780 simultaneously, we never exceeded temperatures of 100° (37.8° C) on either capsule’s surface. While running only a single tuner, the temperatures seldom exceeded 95°F (35°C). We weren’t able to measure actual power consumption on the cards themselves, but the temperature differentials argue strongly that consumption levels are also significantly lower on the new part.