Vista View Saber DA-1N1-I Review
The folks at Vista View were nice enough to send me one of their
latest cards, the Saber
DA-1N1-I to test out for a bit. This
review is coming a bit late because I was a bit under the weather when I first
got the card and the last thing I was up for was digging around in my dust
filled PC.
The Saber DA-1N1-I is an interesting animal as it is a PCI
tuner, not PCIe (though they also have the DA-1N1-E
which is PCIe). Vista View seems to realize
that their still is a market for PCI tuners.
While PCIe might be the latest and great, the truth is that in many occasions
it does pay to use a PCIe slot for a tuner.
Many motherboards out there have limited PCIe slots and with PCIe
graphics cards taking up one of those slots right off the bat, it is nice to
see that you can still fill the void using a PCI tuner. Another issue along these lines are graphics
card manufactures building their heatsinks on the cards so they spill over and
semi-occupy the lone second PCIe slot.
Older PCs that are getting help from the newest graphics cards from ATI
and NVIDIA will also benefit from not needing to be upgraded in order to play top
notch HD video.
One source for that top notch HD video comes from this card. In my testing the Saber DA-1N1-I tuned digital
ATSC content with fantastic signal strength.
In my case using an antenna in my attic I was getting the signal
strength from low 90% to 100% from all my major digital channels. The Saber DA-1N1-I is a half height combo
tuner that will tune both analog (NTSC) and digital (ATSC) signals at the same
time, allowing to record two programs at once and satisfying Windows XP Media Center
Edition 2005’s hardware encoding analog tuner requirement. Analog tuning was above far above trusty Hauppauge
cards, and rather than reinvent the wheel, I will point everyone to Missing
Remote's Saber DA-1N1-I Review to compare analog image quality. In my opinion, the Saber DA-1N1-I is right up
there with the best analog cards on the market.
Digital quality was excellent as expected with the high signal quality
that I was getting with the card.
Overall, I can highly suggest that you take a look at the Saber
DA-1N1-I if you are in the market for a new digital or analog tuner. It includes all the cables you need, and
minus the antenna and PC the box had everything I needed in it. Driver installation was smooth in both Media
Center 2005 and in Vista Media Center, though I did the majority of my testing
in Media Center 2005. For $100, it is
hard to go wrong with the Vista View Saber DA-1N1-I. Purchase two of them and be ready to record
up to four programs at once, two in HD and two in SD.
Pros
- One PCI slot give you dual tuners
- Combo tuner (analog and digital at the same time)
- $100 price tag
- Great analog and digital tuning
- Includes cables and brackets (Mini Stereo to RCA, S-Video to
Composite, Low Profile Bracket)
Cons
