The Adaptec Dual TV Tuner 3610 Kit has turned out to be a great purchase. I bought it to replace a PCI TV Tuner card for two reasons: to receive a digital signal, and to allow simultaneous viewing and recording of two independent channels. Although my only HDTV source is over-the-air, this tuner does a fine job. Pairing it with a good HDTV antenna makes a beautiful picture.

Pros:
* Works great on Windows Media Centre 2005. (I've not tried on other OSs)
* Easy setup
* Several connection options

Cons:
* Relies on Windows MCE for digital tv signal strength; would be really nice to have a separate tool.
* FM radio reception is less than stellar, though it may just be my antenna placement.
* Support seems somewhat limited, not that I've had any need to use it.

As a special note, I think Adaptec marketing folks were over-zealous in slapping the acronym "PVR" on this device; it has no inherent capabilities to do this, or any additional software to do this. It relies solely on Windows MCE for this function. MCE does a fine job of that, but that's beside the point.

Overall I think this is a very good product. Its biggest fault is that it's the first of a kind (usb dual tv tuner), and thus doesn't have much following in the market or good product documentation. If you're a bit of a tech nut, you can probably figure most of it out on your own anyway.

I got this usb tuner to start using Windows 7 Media Center in my apartment. I purchased a new machine for use as Media Center, but temporarily used a low-end laptop until the new machine arrived. I simply connected the adaptec USB tuner to the laptop, and within 2 minutes the adapter was recognized fully by 7MC, and was working beautifully. The included remote control worked great out of the box, and we were recoding video without a problem. It's an absolutely great bargain.
The only issues I have:
1) A blinking green LED light when the tuner is active (so at night it's annoying). Would be nice to be ablel to disable all LEDs.
2) The new machine came with Windows 7 64-bit, and even though the microsoft website says it's compatible, there was no way to get it to work in x64. Reformattead with 32-bits and worked flawlessly.

Product works great with my laptop! Took me a total of 6 mins to install and setup the tuner. Literally opened the box plugged everything in and connected the usb cord to my laptop and Win 7 instantly recognized it and installed all the drivers needed. This is an upgrade from my single tv tuner that I use through Windows Media Center. Once I connected the new tuner, Windows Media Center automatically knew there was a different tuner setup and walked me through setting everything up. The remote works great with no problems, I've even been able to watch tv on my computer from bed cause the remote has amazing range. It saved all my info for shows I recorded and my future recordings. Even better, all the schedule conflicts I had during my time with a single tv tuner were all cleared up automatically because Windows Media Center recognized it was a dual tv tuner. Not sure about other operating systems but this works great for Windows 7 64 bit. I would recommend this to anyone!

Its been nearly 2 years since I bought this to enable my computer to use Windows Media Center and flat screen TV. This unit has performed flawlessly during that time. I am able to watch one show and record another at the same time, or record 2 at a time. It was easy to hook up and worked perfectly right away. This combined with my computer and Windows media center gives me the convenience of a DVR combined with the ability to record any recorded show to disk, and no monthly charges!

10/3/2010 Comcast has finally made this unit obsolete, they have changed the way they send the signal. I can now only recieve channels under 20. Every channel over 20 only displays snow or blank screen. I'm forced to invest in Ceton's quad tuner. I ordered 2 months ago but there's a major back log and limited units available. So don't invest in this product as I now have 5 doorstops.

I have built many and have been using Home Theater PC's (HTPC) since 2002 and currently have 7 HTPC capable deployed throughout my house. I prefer dual tuners over single tuners and I've used many different types of TV tuners to include brands from Hauppauge, Adaptec, Aver Media, Nvidia, EVGA, ATI, etc... they all have their positive and negatives but I've pretty much given up on all products except for Hauppauge and Adaptec.
I have just recently retired 2 Hauppauge dual tuners for the moment. While Hauppauge is perfect for 32-bit Vista and XP, I recently upgraded to 64-bit Vista and the card recognition by MCE as well as recordings are very buggy. Also, my Hauppauge tuners seems to be picky as to the type of hardware combinations used in the HTPC build; finally they are tall as well as long boards and a small system cannot be built around it.

Although Adaptec is considered legacy equipment, I've fallen back in love with these dual tuners and plan to buy several more before they become extinct to purchase.

At first I didn't want to have anything external to my PC; I technically still don't. That's the main reasons why these tuners didn't grow on me at first. After a couple of years, of having several computers blow up on me due to heat issues or raising the noise Db level in the room due to additional case fans... I rediscovered the worth of these tuners. These tuners are actually my longest lasting tuners and I have never had a problem with heat or noise issues.

PRO's:
1. Currently less than 2/3 the price of what I originally paid for when they first came out.
2. Dual tuners allows multi-task capabilities:
a. Records using provided hardware, doesn't drain or slow down computer resources.
b. Able to flip through channels and watch tv while recording another channel.
c. Able to record 2 channels and watch recorded shows.
3. No degradation in recording based on settings. While the quality of BEST is fantastic, I set my recording to Good to save on disk space; still excellent recording quality.
4. I've strapped 2 Adaptec's using MCE Extender to one of my HTPC's and able to record 4 channels at once; never had an issue.
5. Comes with more cables than you will ever need.
6. MCE remote and stand included.
7. Automatically recognized by Vista 32 and 64-bit versions.
8. Decent FM Tuner
9. Can control converter/cable/satelite boxes.
10. Unlike internal cards, does not add heat or elevate temperature within PC.
11. Two tuners takes up one USB slot.

CONS:
1. External - but low footprint.
2. Requires line of site with remote so tuners cannot be hidden.
3. Although haven't tried anything else like MediaPortal, documentation states for MCE use only; which I prefer anyways so not really a con.
4. Not automatically recognized by XP; however, software is easily obtainable online or with provided disk.

My two cents worth: As far as HD or digital TV is concerned, AINOKEA!

I'm hooked up directly from cable (No converter box), to the Adaptec dual tuner, to the PC, and then to my LCD; I'm more than happy with the recording quality; approximately 1.7 - 2.4GB's per hour versus more than 5Gb's per Hour for HD.

Hawaii has already switched to HD or Digital OTA transmissions and they've stated in the mean time we don't have to do anything if we are connected to basic cable. Yes, eventually basic cable will transition to all digital... but I don't see it happening anytime soon... maybe wishful thinking.

Well, if you are geekier than I am and want to invest alot of money towards recording HD content, you may as well also invest in a lot more disk space as well. Don't get me wrong, I have a couple of hybrid cards stashed away that is capable of recieving digital signals, but today, tomorrow, next week, next month... I won't need them.

If you decide to go the economical way to build a dedicated HTPC then I whole heartedly recommend the Adaptec Dual TV tuner? I think $60.00 is good investment for today's current cable situation; it's definitely a good start to build your own experience without spending too much money.

In addition to tv tuners, other experiences has taught me to use a 500 - 750GB Hard drive (currently under $80) while setting the system to record in Good or Better quality. Don't forget to download a really good freeware TV commercial cutter but stay away from those software that converts it to a different file format because the naming convention is terrible and doesn't retain any of the TV shows underlying metadata.

I'm still looking for the perfect HTPC case. Stay far far away from built in monitor cases; especially MonCaso... ugh! So expensive and disappointing in the end; stick to something functional; the aesthetics will wear off sooner than you know. Once you upgrade to blu-ray, these types of cases become nightmares.

Hope this helps you Novice HTPC builders and I apologize for the rambling.

- ME