Request: TV Tuner Recommendations.

[MaDHaVoK]

Hi, here is a little background on the situation. I am going away to school and I plan on using my Compaq P900 as my TV. Currently I have a TV Wonder VE, and I am not happy with the quality of the picture at full screen. Additionally I am not happy with the quality at which I can capture video.
Also I my school is suppose to have digital cable at the start of the fall semester. So what do you guys think? Are there any good choices? I am not looking to blow a lot of money. I can always work out a deal with coupons / price match / rebates? but I am looking for retail price under 100 bucks.

Thank for the Help!

 

[qIat]

Leadtek WinFast TV2000XP

~$65 @ Newegg. I like mine

 

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: qIat
Leadtek WinFast TV2000XP

~$65 @ Newegg. I like mine

Yeah, and NOT ATI unless you're willing to shell out for a 8500DV or 9700 Pro DV

 

[Calundronius]

Hauppage isn't bad...I've got one and it's decent enough...I'll bet that other companies do better though.

 

[Imported]

I have a Leadtek Winfast TV2000XP as well, purchased from Newegg. I would have liked the Hauppage WinTV Theater though.. but it's more expensive.

 

[The Stigenator]

First of all anything at full screen will look bad.

Standard NTSC Broadcast is 720x486 1.33:1 (4:3). HDTV 1080x1920 pixels.. anything above 640x480 will be blurred regardless of the tv tuner. The computer display is not 1:1 to the tv display hence its a little skewed. The ATI one is one of the best TV tuners out there. I have teh TV Wonder PCI (not the VE model) and prior to that had an All In Wonder version. They all use the same tuner a Philips Tuner with a Brooktree chipset.

Anyway I watch at 320x240 its nice and crisp.... Recording is really crisp to. However to limit filesize i record at the lowest 160x240 i think. The quality is still good enough for 320x240.




http://www.llnl.gov/viz_lab/guidelines.html

 

[UNCjigga]

First of all anything at full screen will look bad.

Not when you're using DScaler with adaptive deinterlacing, 3d comb filter and 3:2 pulldown! Looks just as good as any modern TV set. The reason I knocked on ATI tv tuners is that for some reason, the default WDM driver they ship with does not allow access to the audio portion of the tuner in stereo...it will only work in mono mode. I too have the PCI version of the ATI TV wonder (not VE=full stereo) and I constantly have to trade between good image quality/mono sound and bad image quality/stereo sound. Why can't ATI just steal Dscaler's open source code and put all those image processing goodies in their own software???