Trying to find a good TV Tuner

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SynthDude2001

Lifer
Mar 19, 2003
18,289
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How much money are you looking to spend? Hauppage (I probably spelled that wrong) makes a nice line of analog TV tuner cards with hardware MPEG encoders for low CPU usage if you want to record... cheapest one is around $65, last I'd checked.
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
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If you want to play videogames through it, it's GOT to be a PCI card - and you should go with one that uses a Philips chipset, to get good contrast and gamut from the (S)Video signal feed.
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
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That depends way too much on where in the world you are. E.g. the offerings in the US are much more limited than elsewhere, partly because the big networks apparently don't want Digital-TV cards on the market.
 
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BlackAdam

Senior member
Jul 16, 2004
729
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Originally posted by: Peter
That depends way too much on where in the world you are. E.g. the offerings in the US are much more limited than elsewhere, partly because the big networks apparently don't want Digital-TV cards on the market.
Click to expand...
Uhh... I haven't seen anything generally available elsewhere that is better than what is available in the United States.
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
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Yeah? Show me a DVB-T or -C card you can buy in the US then. Just one. Also, you just begin to see DVB-S cards to trickle in, while we've had them for QUITE a while. Here in Europe, we can even buy dual-mode cards, and the first triple is on its way:

http://www.lifeview.com.tw/html/products/internal_tv/flydvbt_duo.htm
http://www.lifeview.com.tw/html/products/internal_tv/flydvb_trio.htm

Why? We don't let the movie industry take enough control to keep these things off the market. (They're just too afraid of digital recording becoming too popular ...)
 
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xtknight

Elite Member
Oct 15, 2004
12,974
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71
Originally posted by: Peter
That depends way too much on where in the world you are. E.g. the offerings in the US are much more limited than elsewhere, partly because the big networks apparently don't want Digital-TV cards on the market.
Click to expand...

Very true. Finding ATSC/8VSB (US) demodulator chips is a pain in the rear, whereas DVB-T (Europe) chips are plentiful. I (basically my dad though) was trying to make a HDTV tuner but just gave up. There's about 3 HDTV tuner boxes (STBs) I found at Circuit City, and I grabbed one while I still could. Probably has that stupid DRM crap in it.
 
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Kalessian

Senior member
Aug 18, 2004
825
12
81
I don't mean to thread-hijack, but I'm going to build an HTPC built around MythTV. The PVR350 card they recommend is a bit pricey at over $150. That $30 KWORD card you linked to, Peter, would rule.

No HDTV is fine, I guess I don't need a hardware MPEG2 decoder if there's a nice software one available for lInux? Is that KWORLD card good enough for DVD-playback and basic TV-capturing (under linux)?
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
1
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MCE cards have an MPEG2 _en_coder to facilitate recording. MPEG2 _de_coding (to view content) would be the graphics card's business.

You might want to check Linux support for the card, it is fairly new. If unsure (the building blocks are there), you might want to use the LifeView FlyTV Platinum instead (from www.lifeview.com online US store) - it's twice as much unfortunately, but it's been around long enough to have Linux support* on release level (from 2.6.13 kernel). I'm watching TV on Linux using one of these right now. I haven't ventured into recording yet, but I don't see how a halfway current system shouldn't manage MPEG2-izing the stream using the CPU. (You DO want hardware MPEG2 encoders for a living room PC with the typically weak CPUs in those.)

DVD playback of course wouldn't go through a TV/video INPUT card at all - this is entirely between the DVD drive and the graphics card (and its MPEG2 decoder, or a CPU driven solution).

* which I implemented :)
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
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Well, yes, that's exactly what I did. Bought such a card, reverse engineered its implementation details, and added the required code into the video4linux project. After hovering around in betas and release candidates for a while, the latest release kernel now finally contains it.

See linux-2.6.13/drivers/media/video/saa7134/saa7134-cards.c :)
 
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lordsaytor

Member
Jul 29, 2005
130
0
0
Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
How much money are you looking to spend? Hauppage (I probably spelled that wrong) makes a nice line of analog TV tuner cards with hardware MPEG encoders for low CPU usage if you want to record... cheapest one is around $65, last I'd checked.
Click to expand...

My budget is $100. I just want to watch cable tv programs and play my PS2 with the same quality as I would have on a regular television set.

I live in Canada and I get pretty much all the popular stations in the states.
 
kylebisme

kylebisme

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2000
9,396
0
0
Originally posted by: Peter
That's your copyright laws and MPAA/RIAA lobbying work right there. Remember that when it's election time again :)
Click to expand...
Doesn't really matter there, they just buy off the winners. :disgust:
 
Gillbot

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
28,830
17
81
Anything in the USB realm worthwile? I have no free slots on my SN45G. All I really want to do is capture camcorder video to make digital files.
 
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Stokes

Senior member
Apr 20, 2005
510
0
0
What do people think of the Winfast 2000XP Expert? I am in college and want to watch tv on my computer and not really notice a difference from a normal tv.
 
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charloscarlies

Golden Member
Feb 12, 2004
1,288
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0
Originally posted by: Stokes
What do people think of the Winfast 2000XP Expert? I am in college and want to watch tv on my computer and not really notice a difference from a normal tv.
Click to expand...

I have one. It's a great card for the price. Software leaves a little to be desired but it isn't too bad.
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
1
0
Originally posted by: Gillbot
Anything in the USB realm worthwile? I have no free slots on my SN45G. All I really want to do is capture camcorder video to make digital files.
Click to expand...

For that, an USB box will be suitable - however, you'll be tied to the MPEG2 algorithm inside the USB gadget, no quality vs. file size adjustments like you'd have with a CPU-driven compactor.

The Leadtek WinFast cards are an OK choice too, as long as you stay away from their low end offerings that still use the ancient BT878 grabber chip. Their better ones use recent Conexant chips, which are fine for a Windows user, but whose Linux drivers I feel haven't matured quite enough yet.
What you don't get from these cards are "universal" tuners, letting you view content that's not in your local color-TV encoding (PAL/NTSC/SECAM/whatever). This is a Philips exclusive, available on those cards that use the "silicon tuner" (no tin can) - like the KWorld and LifeView cards I mentioned.
 
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Stokes

Senior member
Apr 20, 2005
510
0
0
Originally posted by: Peter
Originally posted by: Gillbot
Anything in the USB realm worthwile? I have no free slots on my SN45G. All I really want to do is capture camcorder video to make digital files.
Click to expand...

For that, an USB box will be suitable - however, you'll be tied to the MPEG2 algorithm inside the USB gadget, no quality vs. file size adjustments like you'd have with a CPU-driven compactor.

The Leadtek WinFast cards are an OK choice too, as long as you stay away from their low end offerings that still use the ancient BT878 grabber chip. Their better ones use recent Conexant chips, which are fine for a Windows user, but whose Linux drivers I feel haven't matured quite enough yet.
What you don't get from these cards are "universal" tuners, letting you view content that's not in your local color-TV encoding (PAL/NTSC/SECAM/whatever). This is a Philips exclusive, available on those cards that use the "silicon tuner" (no tin can) - like the KWorld and LifeView cards I mentioned.
Click to expand...


Do you mean that with the cards with the Philips chipset, you are able to view channels or content that normally would not be avaliable to a normal tv user?
 
Gillbot

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
28,830
17
81
Originally posted by: Peter
Originally posted by: Gillbot
Anything in the USB realm worthwile? I have no free slots on my SN45G. All I really want to do is capture camcorder video to make digital files.
Click to expand...

For that, an USB box will be suitable - however, you'll be tied to the MPEG2 algorithm inside the USB gadget, no quality vs. file size adjustments like you'd have with a CPU-driven compactor.

The Leadtek WinFast cards are an OK choice too, as long as you stay away from their low end offerings that still use the ancient BT878 grabber chip. Their better ones use recent Conexant chips, which are fine for a Windows user, but whose Linux drivers I feel haven't matured quite enough yet.
What you don't get from these cards are "universal" tuners, letting you view content that's not in your local color-TV encoding (PAL/NTSC/SECAM/whatever). This is a Philips exclusive, available on those cards that use the "silicon tuner" (no tin can) - like the KWorld and LifeView cards I mentioned.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I don't have any other option since I have no free slots in my machine. Can't I change the encoder with TMPGEnc or something if need be?

 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
1
0
The point is that USB doesn't have the bandwidth to transmit the original, complete video stream. Thus the reduction to MPEG2 happens inside the device, with the algorithm hardcoded into its chips.

The Philips "silicon tuner" chips can display any TV norm from anywhere in the world, whereas the older "tin can" tuner technology is always tied to a single, country specific norm. This may or may not be useful to you. (The main videograbber chip is always multinorm; video signal sources like DVD players or game consoles may be PAL, NTSC or SECAM in any case.)
 
Gillbot

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
28,830
17
81
I don't understand any of that. ;) So long as it works and will look ok, it will suffice.

I might be able to yank my 2nd vid card and replace it with a TV card, any recommendations for a low end solution (read: Cheap) as I don't intend to use it very much or often.
 
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