Multiple nVidia DualTV MCEs in a single PC: now supported in Beyond TV
December 6th, 2006 at 6:47 pm by Rakesh
Since nVidia released their DualTV MCE earlier this year, we’ve wished they had drivers to support putting more than one of these cards in a single PC. After all, who doesn’t want to build their very own Godzilla DVR?
Well, just in time for Christmas, after lots of testing and with nVidia’s permission, we’ve released a pre-release version of nVidia’s DualTV MCE drivers (version 5.9.5.23) that make this possible. Note these drivers are only validated to work with Beyond TV.
Here’s an 8 tuner box that we built with the new drivers and nVidia’s DualTV MCEs:
So you can confidently buy the newly added Beyond TV - nVidia DualTV MCE bundle from the SnapStream Store with the knowledge that you can now expand well beyond two tuners.
UPDATED (12/7/2006): I updated the post to clarify that the drivers were not written by SnapStream, but by nVidia. We’ve simply been testing them and got permission from nVidia to release them before their public release.
December 6th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
What kind/model case is this? im looking for a new case to expand my HTPC…
Thanks,
Jason
December 7th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Will you also be selling the dualTV cards without a bundle ?
December 7th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
When the tuner has the letters MCE in it, doesn’t that mean the video compression is to a Microsoft propietary format and not standard mpeg2?
December 9th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
nanook105: Yes, we’re planning on selling the DualTV MCEs standalone… Not sure on the timeframe for this though. It shouldn’t be too long.
Craig: No, the MCE is just a marketing designation that says they are targeting the card at Media Center Edition (MCE) users. The card records in standard MPEG-2 and works under all versions of Windows XP, not only MCE.
December 13th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
I was wondering how you handle the cabling behind a PC like this. Is there any elegant way of doing this? If you have any pictures of the cabling on a monster like this I’d be interested.
December 16th, 2006 at 3:27 am
Just a pricing observation: I purchased the DualTV from Nvidia for $149. I got BTV4 from Fry’s for $50 and opted for the Burning plugin/FF remote rebate. Total price: $199. Purchasing this bundle would add an additional $29.99 for the same setup. Someone’s gonna get in a situation like those airfare commercials where one guy finds out his fare is waaaay more expensive than the guy he’s sitting next to. Never a good thing….