On first launch, and after going into the TV settings, Vista Media Center said that a new tuner had been found. I clicked through the screens to set the card up. After Vista's setup, all the channels that the Terratec software found were available to me. Why was this so surprising? The card that I was previously using (a Hauppauge Nova T) struggled to get some of the channels, and just did not find some of the fringe channels using this antenna.
After setting a few recordings up in Vista Media Center so that the card would have to use both tuners at the same time, and inspecting the output video, it seems that both tuners on the Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT perform just as well as each other.
I have been using the card in the Media Center for a month, with no issues raising their head.
To benchmark the Terratec I popped the Hauppauge back into the box and disabled one of the Terratec tuners. This forced Vista Media Center to use the two different manufacturers of card to record dual channel recordings. Both cards were plugged into the same booster/splitter box and the Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT clearly out performed the Hauppauge on every test. I even swapped the aerial cables around to make sure a badly screened RF cable wasn't the culprit. This showed that the tuners on the Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT are certainly more sensitive, and as such are more capable of holding a weak signal.
That said, both cards received and recorded all channels available in my area when plugged into my DVB-T antenna. However, even then the Hauppauge showed more dropout and stutter issues.
Conclusion
I would rate this card very highly indeed; I've been impressed with everything I have seen so far. The card is relatively cheap (around 70GBP / 130USD / 100Euro), performs exceptionally well, and has great support (Hauppauge, who after all are the market leaders, have very few 32Bit drivers - let alone 64Bit - at the moment), and best of all will fill that PCI-E 1x slot you have sitting on your motherboard doing nothing useful.
I would highly recommend one of these cards for your Vista Media Center project at a drop of a hat. I'm very happy with the one I have, so much so that it has replaced my trusted Hauppauge card.
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