TV Tuner Card

[coolkatz321]

Just bought a new PC, and I'm looking for a cheap and good TV tuner card. I have Vista Premium x64. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[SickBeast]

Do you want HD or no?

In North America they're going to stop broadcasting in low-def analog in 2009.

I'm pretty sure HDTV tuners are limited in selection and rather expensive. The industry hasn't quite caught up with it yet.

 

[x2 3600 rules sazakky]

i know. the stopping broadcast of analog NTSC is quite a dead block acause as the beginning in the 1960's of NTSC modulation, it was the stuff. NTSC moduclation currently beats PAL in termss of bandwidth.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: x2 3600 rules sazakky
i know. the stopping broadcast of analog NTSC is quite a dead block acause as the beginning in the 1960's of NTSC modulation, it was the stuff. NTSC moduclation currently beats PAL in termss of bandwidth.

Yeah but it frees up the airwaves for way better stuff here like 3G wireless. I hope that AM and FM radio are the next to switch, so long as it's free to receive like now.

 

[x2 3600 rules sazakky]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: x2 3600 rules sazakky
i know. the stopping broadcast of analog NTSC is quite a dead block acause as the beginning in the 1960's of NTSC modulation, it was the stuff. NTSC moduclation currently beats PAL in termss of bandwidth.

Yeah but it frees up the airwaves for way better stuff here like 3G wireless. I hope that AM and FM radio are the next to switch, so long as it's free to receive like now.

but the 3g wireless has a bandwidth interfernce as it occupys the radio stage and freq
time divison. its 850-2100 hsdpa 3g bandwidth. 3.6-7.2mbps.
it may be as it seems, but its not

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
Do you want HD or no?

In North America they're going to stop broadcasting in low-def analog in 2009.

I'm pretty sure HDTV tuners are limited in selection and rather expensive. The industry hasn't quite caught up with it yet.

The bigger issue is if it's OTA or Cable/Sat. If he's on a cable system then he may have a few years left where an analog tuner would work for SD broadcasts, before they switch over to pure Switched Digital Video. But otherwise the channel options are really limited, only OTA programming is sent in the clear on OTA and cable, and sat users are entirely out of luck. If he's looking for something he can use with everything a digital cable system offers, he's entirely out of luck unless he wants to buy a $1000 Dell XPS system with an OCUR.

 

[RVale1]

ATSC TV cards are unfortunately a mess right now. I was in the market for one myself, and couldn't reallyfind a unit I liked. Each brand has some problem or the other associated with it. Kworlds are infamous for sound issues, aka continuous popping, along with fuzzy picture. The Hauupaige 1600/1800 also has fairly poor reception, though thats pretty much subjective.

Best thing I can suggest is the AverMedia Combo. The biggest issue with this is that it supposedly runs extremely hot. Could be an issue if you already have a pretty hot video card.

 

[Bateluer]

I was looking at one of the ATI Theater 650 based solutions myself, but I haven't committed to buying one yet. They seem to be getting better drive support than their HDTV Wonder ever did.

 

[coolkatz321]

I don't really care about HD... I just want something that works fairly well. It'll be hooked up to a cable jack the whole time, not an antenna, so I don't think the digital conversion would be affected

 

[coolkatz321]

Well, just managed to pick up the AverTV combo off Ebay for $35 shipped, so I'll let everyone know how it works!

 

[dakels]

I have a hauppauge 1600. It's still sitting in a sealed box because I have no idea what to do with it... lol I learned after I bought it of the 125 channel limitation and the channels that interest me the most are after 150+ (movie and sports channels). I don't understand why I can't just channels on my cable box and view what the TV views on my computer...

 

[Modular]

Originally posted by: dakels
I have a hauppauge 1600. It's still sitting in a sealed box because I have no idea what to do with it... lol I learned after I bought it of the 125 channel limitation and the channels that interest me the most are after 150+ (movie and sports channels). I don't understand why I can't just channels on my cable box and view what the TV views on my computer...

Erm, you can...just use the S-video and audio inputs on the 1600 along with the included IR Blaster and you can control the cable box through the Hauppauge remote.

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: Modular

Originally posted by: dakels
I have a hauppauge 1600. It's still sitting in a sealed box because I have no idea what to do with it... lol I learned after I bought it of the 125 channel limitation and the channels that interest me the most are after 150+ (movie and sports channels). I don't understand why I can't just channels on my cable box and view what the TV views on my computer...

Erm, you can...just use the S-video and audio inputs on the 1600 along with the included IR Blaster and you can control the cable box through the Hauppauge remote.

I can see above channel 125? (sorry I am a total dunce about this stuff)

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: dakels

Originally posted by: Modular

Originally posted by: dakels
I have a hauppauge 1600. It's still sitting in a sealed box because I have no idea what to do with it... lol I learned after I bought it of the 125 channel limitation and the channels that interest me the most are after 150+ (movie and sports channels). I don't understand why I can't just channels on my cable box and view what the TV views on my computer...

Erm, you can...just use the S-video and audio inputs on the 1600 along with the included IR Blaster and you can control the cable box through the Hauppauge remote.

I can see above channel 125? (sorry I am a total dunce about this stuff)

It's a bit more complex than that. The range of frequencies cable systems support comes out to 125 unique analog channels, but when cable companies went digital the numbering system got thrown out the door since they can put many many digital channels inside of a single analog channel. So the question should be "I can see digital cable channels?" to which the answer would be yes, as long as the IR blaster works with your cable box.