TV Card for computer

Scrumpton

Hi,

Can anyone advise on whether these are any good.

I have an aerial outlet beside my computer so signal would not be a problem.

Is it just the card you buy or do you have to have other things. I am using Vista

Conor_3

Just pop it in the PC. Get a freeview one with a Windows Media Center compatible remote control. Go into Windows Media Center, if you're running Vista Home or Ultimate, and set it up there. It'll scan the channels, give you a full EPG, do live pause and rewind as well as programme and series recording. In short, if you get a twin tuner DVB-S card, it'll turn the PC into a freeview equivalent of a Sky+ box.

Here's one:
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_novat500.html

mdbarber

Conor wrote: »

Just pop it in the PC. Get a freeview one with a Windows Media Center compatible remote control. Go into Windows Media Center, if you're running Vista Home or Ultimate, and set it up there. It'll scan the channels, give you a full EPG, do live pause and rewind as well as programme and series recording. In short, if you get a twin tuner DVB-S card, it'll turn the PC into a freeview equivalent of a Sky+ box.

Here's one:
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_novat500.html

just a quick caution, you don't want a dvb-s card, thats for satellite, its dvb-t(freeview) to use with a standard aerial

alanjuk

Or you could use this

Conor_3

mdbarber wrote: »

just a quick caution, you don't want a dvb-s card, thats for satellite, its dvb-t(freeview) to use with a standard aerial

Oops. I have no idea why I put in DVB-S - I even linked to a DVB-T card. :embarasse

althas

Yip, the TV tuner card as said above is pretty much all you need (as long as your Vista has Media Centre in it)

The only decision you need to make is if you get a single or twin tuner card. Like satelite and a "normal" freeview box, if you are watching one channel, you can not record another (though you can WATCH an already recorded program whilst recording a different one). But with a twin tuner, you can watch one and record another, or record 2 different channels and watch a pre recorded one

I personally have a twin tuner card and would not go back to a single, I found it to restrictive. But like anything, you need to decide if you want to pay the extra for the twin tuner orif the single will be sufficient for you

GL on your choice and let us know what you go for

dougk_2

My personal view is g for a USB stick one... then its easy to movbe to another PC / laptop etc when you update. They can be bought for under £20 (even from PC World!)

Feanixxx

You may wish to buy one with a S-VHS and audio input socket so you can plug your Sky box or DVD player into it for recording to HDD.

mdbarber

Feanixxx wrote: »

You may wish to buy one with a S-VHS and audio input socket so you can plug your Sky box or DVD player into it for recording to HDD.

those are useless unless they have on-board h/w mpeg encoding like the hauppage hvr1300