PC TV tuner cards

exegnomad

I've been thinking about getting a new computer, and fancying a tv tuner with it.

How useful are they? a lot of people seem to have difficulty with them, software not working properly and updateddrivers having to be downloaded. The more affordable ones use software and the computer's chip to process or code the signal to record it, and the ones with hardware coding cost a lot more.

so, I'm now wondering, would it make more sense to forget about a computer tv tuner and use a separate brand-name dvd recorder with its own tuner etc, and put the dvd in the computer drive if I want to edit something?
Are there major advantages to having a pc tv tuner I should enjoy?

Hope someone can comment from their own experience.....

cheers.

nullogik

They're OK. Some of the unknown brand named ones often come with shoddy drivers and tuners that lack key features (like not being able to access teletext) - which has been my case with Kworld.

I would recommend you look at Hauppauge and Nebula Electronics if you want a tuner card for your PC - and make sure you card is connected to a roof top aerial (for the best pics) because the tiny aerials included are often nigh on useless.

Conor_3

Hauppauge are very good - just avoid them if you run Windows XP64 or Vista 64 bit with some of the cards as there aren't 64bit drivers for them.

Leadtek share the same chipsets as the Hauppauge cards as well.

Both work very well with Windows Media Centre.

JAYMARSH2005

I use a usb device, they are cheap as chips nowadays, the haupage one is the one I use, bus as one of the posts above says, use the rooftop aerial and not the tiny one you get with them, unless you have a freeview mast in your back garden !!

barginboyrob

damn, I want one, but the house i'm moving into #(renting) doesn't have a tV aerial!...

We are getting Virgin media..but wanted to watch tv on my laptop as well...hmm any ideas?

nullogik

Depending on how far you live from a Freeview mast and the construction of your home, as well as the your location (city, countryside etc.). You may get away with using a set-top aerial - the kind of thing you buy from Argos for around £10.

Its a bit hit and miss though. I can get all the channels but it means that I have to reposition the aerial for certain channels and at some times of the day and weather conditions I can't get some particular channels.

If you've got an old aerial knocking around, then give it a go - at least it'll give you a rough indication about whether you can get anything using this particular method. No guarentees it will work though!

FallingDownMan

These indoor aerials would do what you want - link 1 ---- link 2 ---- link 3 - as long as you have a decent digital signal near you. Standard UHF is even easier and just about any set top aerial will work.

I got my PCI TV card from eBay because I wanted to capture video (i.e. from my old Sky box) - this one is a good buy just doing a quick search, though just about to end and a bargain at that price. I never regretted it.Does everything I wanted.

toasterman

In my experiences, hardware encoding on-card is a must. The software ones are useless unless you enjoy watching tv in a tiny little window.

I had an internal freeview/analog combi card from Hauppauge. Useless. Picked up maybe 2 local muxes on freeview. An external freeview box (£20 from asda) with the exact same aerial and I get around 85-90% signal and the full range of channels.

So what I've got is the cheap ordinary standalone freeview box, and a scart cable from there to the composite input on an analog hauppauge pvr150. I can confirm they're good cards.
Hauppauge's software is terrible tho, so just use the drivers - and find yourself something else if you're intending to have it pvr styley.

I'll tell you now - a standalone dvd recorder is considerably easier unless you NEED to edit anything. I find most people don't mind the adverts in shows, if they're getting it free with you doing the hard work.

If you're thinking freeview, I'd consider a Humax of Topfield hard drive freeview recorder though - you save it to hard drive, and theres a usb connection for copying shows off to pc (or mac) for editing/burning

FallingDownMan

I agree. Before I got the PCI card (for about £14 from Hong Kong) I tried a Dazzle USB device (cost around £65).

It was useless and dropped frames all over the place.

A PCI card is better than an external device if you want to capture stuff from other sources as well (at least easily). I always feel that with a PC-based system you have greater flexibility - as long as you know what you're doing and don't mind the lack of basic instructions.

Horses for courses, I guess

A_Clock

barginboyrob wrote: »

damn, I want one, but the house i'm moving into #(renting) doesn't have a tV aerial!...

We are getting Virgin media..but wanted to watch tv on my laptop as well...hmm any ideas?

I use to plug my Sky into my video player, then my VCR into my tv card. Was great for taping stuff to put on dvd :j