Best value Freeview Dongle for PC?

ellybelly89

Hi all,

I'm looking for a TV dongle for my laptop and was wondering if you can recommend any?

I don't want to spend more than £50.
I would like to be able to record.

Thank you.

jaydeeuk1

I usually go for the hauppauge range, and if you are wanting to record, I'd look for a dual tuner to allow you to watch one channel and record another. The cheaper ones won't have hardware decoding so everything is offloaded to your CPU. If you have a non dual core system and wish to record and watch TV you may find odd frames being dropped.

The channels will also depend on how good your reception is. The aerial bundled with every usb TV tuner is rubbish. I mean, really rubbish so you would need a decent aerial.

Otherwise have you had a look at http://www.tvcatchup.com/ ?

ellybelly89

i've got a good rooftop aerial so that's not a problem. My laptop is 3years old now and quite slow so maybe a cheap one isn't such a good idea. i assume upgarding my RAM would help. I've only got 1GB.