After my last update you know I have been having issues with my TV tuner card and after putting up with it for a while I couldn’t take it any longer. I decided enough was enough and it was time to purchase a new TV tuner. Newegg also had some Corsair memory on sale for $75.00 for PC2 8500, yes I said 8500 and I have been wanted to consolidate my 4 1GB sticks into 2 2GB sticks just in case this 64bit Windows 7 works out and I have the option to add a few more GB’s. Newegg also was offering a fairly good (albeit deceptive) deal on a Blu-Ray drive so I thought it was definitely time to get my Wall-E on in HD.

I say the drive deal was deceptive because Newegg nearly makes it out like the drive ONLY plays Blu-ray and nothing else. I had to Google the drive just to make sure it would still read DVD and CD’s and yes it does. The drive is a Lite-On iHOS104-08 and was only $67.99 RETAIL Box, so far I am pleased with the drive but I don’t have any Blu-Ray disc’s just yet so I don’t know how it does on those yet but it works like it should with DVD’s and CD’s.

I have already tried the Avermedia AverTV Combo TV tuner and I can’t say I really gave it a fair chance but I ended up with the ATI 650 Pro because of its higher analog TV picture quality. This time around I noticed a new Hauppauge card on the market that boasts dual / dual tuners (if that makes sense). Basically from what I have read media center will see the 1 card as 2 analog tuners & 2 digital tuners. Unfortunately I live in Troy Michigan which is one of if not the only city that has separate Comcast analog and digital lines. This was an obvious benefit with my last card and I once again thought it would be with this one but I was sadly disappointed. This card does have 2 Coax connectors on the back but only 1 of them is for TV input, the other is for FM input. What this means for me is that I have to choose over Analog or ATSC or ClearQAM. This is a kick in the nuts since I do get ClearQAM where I live and I just bought a nice digital antenna that picks up plenty of ATSC channels (over the air HD). Anyway I choose Analog since its where I get the most channels and I will say I am EXTREMELY happy with this card. It does in fact work as dual tuners and the picture quality is great, even got rid of that shity white screen issue the ATI card had. I only get dual tuners now but when I move I will get quad tuners which will be nice. By then I will likely have my second card and will go for quad to octo tuners WooOt.

I also had to add another fan because of the Windows 7 upgrade. I have been running with the case open because since the upgrade my temps have gone from 127f to 198f + according to the thermal sensor attached to the NB and monitored on the front of the case. I added a 92mm fan to the back of the case because a 120mm would not fit. I just picked up a cheap 92mm from Micro Center for $3.50 and it seems to do a good job of keeping the temps where they were prior to the upgrade of Windows 7.