Question About TV-Tuners And Video Capture Devices And Digital Cable...

[Spiked]

Ok im in the market for a Tv-Tuner and or Video Capture Device to record tv onto my hdd and or just watch tv on my pc.

Question #1 - which one would i use for regular tv watching on my desktop and or recording live tv/schedualing the record of a tv show?

Question #2 - i have Comcast digital cable, any special things needed?

Question #3 - anyone can refer me to some great tuner software i qould be appreciated...

and

Question #4 - which tv-tuner/video capture device would you recommend under $100-$150?

 

[xanis]

Hmm...I'm pretty sure that you should be able to use Comvast Digital Cable just fine, it seems like it should work on the same principles as Satellite. For a good TV-tuner card, I reccomend the following:

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 500
ATI TV Wonder Elite

 

[ribbon13]

Compro's Videomate X series beat Hauppauge in a number of ways, but since the last time I tried finding one, the supply seems to be near zero. No hits on froogle or pricewatch

 

[Spiked]

well right now i've decided on a Happauge Card only becuase ive heard great things... now its just choosing which card i should get thats in my range of $$$

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: Spiked

Question #2 - i have Comcast digital cable, any special things needed?

Question #4 - which tv-tuner/video capture device would you recommend under $100-$150?

Digital cable requires a "QAM capable" tuner card. The 2 mentioned by Xanis can only tune analog cable, not digital. Probably a better forum for getting accurate advice is:
avsforum.com
"QAM capable" tuners are going to cost more money, since (AFAIK) these are all also: HDTV capable.
Note: these still can't tune ENCRYPTED digital cable (whether standard or HDTV) signals, such as: Pay-per-View, HBO, etc.
Most digital cable companies also include the older analog signals. So, you could just go with an analog-only tuner card, to save $$. Some "analog only" tuner cards include "S-Video IN" ports, for inputing lower-resolution analog TV signals from a cable company's set top digital decoder box. Or, some company's decoder boxes include a "firewire out" port.

 

[Spiked]

can you recommend any vailr?

im guessing this one wont cover it..

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp...=6803863&type=product&id=1091099928443

 

[vailr]

The ATI HDTV Wonder that you linked to, can only tune over the air HDTV, and analog cable channels; but not any digital cable channels. The avsforum.com link should have better information than what I could tell you, (since the tuner card in my machine is another analog-only card).
These cards may be of interest:
MyHD130
Avermedia A180
FusionHDTV

For an analog-only tuner card, I'd recommend:
(PCI card)
Hauppauge WinTV150-MCE
Sapphire Theatrix 550Pro

Or, the PCIe 1x (for newer motherboards) PowerColor Rage Theater 550 Pro

 

[Spiked]

yeah i found the MyHD and the Fusion, but im tryin to see if there's more than just those 3

 

[INM8]

Compro DVB-T 300 is good if you want to recieve digital tv. Its pretty cheap (around $100-90 AUD) and it can function as a capture device too. Its got bda drivers so you can use it with whatever software you like. Mediaportal is nice once you manage to get it setup. Its free too.