Tv tuner card

[usslacker]

I have decided to get a tv tuner card for my pc but im having a problem. I made the mistake of buying the first one i seen yes a noob action. it was the ati tv wonder pro i installed it 2 different ways. First with a a/v cord quality sucked second plugged a cable cord directly into it.

Both ways the quality was bad it was fizzy blocky and some kind of movement lines. So i promptly uninstalled it and returned it back to bestbuy.

 

Now im doing research before i buy one and im surprised on how little useful info i found.

My question is simple what tv tuner card can do the job of a simple tv. I mean i have a $1200.00 computer with a lot of goodies. And my crappy $50.00 tv set gets better tv signals lol.

My main reason i want to get it is me and my brother have a lot of old VCR tapes that are degrading. And i want to convert them to my computer to edit/fix them. And to rec tv shows that i watch.

[wahaha]

You're not going to get good resolution from a cable line. It has to be hooked up through the s-video cable from a sat rec to get good pic quality since a pc monitor obviously has higher resolution, because you have to sit so close to it compared to a tv.

 

I bought a probably $70 pinnacle board 4 yrs ago and it works. But I'm using it with a heavily shielded cable tv line. The pic quality is better on certain channels.

[TetsuoShima]

MOVED: computer&electronics

[Megalith]

I got my dad a usb Freeview reciever Dongle it cost me £35 came with a remote control and the software all you do is plug in an external aerial ( the supplied one was rubbish) it can be used anywhere in the world and you can pay to view with it to.

[katerina]

Hauppage makes a great card there softwares a little buggy though! You can get a much clearer picture with a cable line if you add a booster especially with the higher channels. The drawback is that adding a booster to your line can possibly fry your cable modem over time.

 

Here's a link for newegg just glancing at the reviews the Kworld looks like a sweet deal for 27 dollars. And with newegg the service is second to none. One big factor in choosing a vidcard is the ability to encode in XVID Hauppage has a few card that can do it. One thing i highly recommend is to always get the latest drivers from the manufacturer. Familiarize yourself with the manual tuning of each channel because autotune isnt always the clearest. The ATI allinwonders are great if you need a vidcard also, the only problem is for the pricepoint your better off buying a seperate vid and tv card unless you have a really small case and are space limited with what you can cram in! In short id go with the card that has best reviews on newegg and make sure you can record in xvid!

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&description=tv+card&Submit=ENE&Ntk=all&N=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

[GorunNova]

It's a pity HDTV (or even progressive scan) support is so crappy or overpriced with tuners... if anything could use HDTV resolutions, it would be modern monitors! ^^

[katerina]

HDTV rips arent a problem with the right card. The biggest problem is our cable connections that's why you have to put boosters and shit on the lines! If you dont all of a sudden you end up with grainy pictures especially on the higher channels! In the future this will all be done by sattelite transmission(internet included) so we wont have this problem. In the meantime the people who can get it have to shell out some decent money for a tv card plus pay extra for HDTV and then prob have to buy a booster like i did and go on the modem lease program with your ISP so if it burns out they replace it for free!!! BTW im on my 3rd modem in a little over a year.