TV Tuner Cards for PC

[Prince of Persia]

I'm looking into buying the Pinnacle Studio TV card for my pc.
I don't have a tv in my room and I got a 17 inch monitor. Can anyone tell me the quality of the screen when watching tv shows?

and should I get the usb or regular versioN?

 

[LarryJoe]

The regular(PCI) version will probably support more features.

 

[da loser]

Picture is nice and clear, software kinda blows since you can't change channels very easily gotta go one channel at a time (or maybe i'm a retard). I had a wintv usb and the picture was fuzzy, so i would prefer pci. Get the Ati wonder-tv if you can.

If you are going to use it with an antennae, don't, unless you can get really good reception, otherwise picture will look bad.

 

[CamaroGuy]

You'll probably want to use the full screen mode, I assume? At full screen, the picture doesn't acheive the sharpness that a TV gives, but the picture is rendered at a better resolution than that of a television (640x480). When viewing the image in a smaller windowed screen, especially at a resolution such as 1024x768 on your 17", the quality looks pretty descent. In my opinion, the windowed screen can superseed a television image in quality if you have a good receiver (read: not rabbit ears).

I have no experience with the USB tuners, but I'm plenty happy with the PCI cards. I'd expect the USB to equal the PCI in quality. As for which version to get, I would say it depends on what other peripherals you have attached to your computer. If you have, or are planning to get other USB devices and you have a free PCI slot, get the PCI version so you don't take up a valuable USB port. On the other hand, if you're nearly maxed out of PCI slots, but you have little or no USB devices, get the USB version.

-CamaroGuy

 

[Vegito]

I have the PCI version, it's pretty good except there are some limitations.

I couldn't get close caption - anyone ?

On Matrox G400 Dual Head, can't put it on the second head.

For some weird reason, on a VIA, it has some weird picture static.. ie.

Soyo 6VBA 133
Micron memory
P3 733
G400 32 DH
G400 16 SH

On the G400 32DH, it gets static and weird colors using VIA but it doesn't on the G400 16SH. Even running the G400 in single gets weird thing with the VIA.

Works great on BX boards.

I saw some other cards had Remote Control! Wish this one had too..

 

[Prince of Persia]

How do I know if I'm going to need an antennae or not? Both of my current tvs have antennae so does this mean I'll have to get an antanne for the pctv thing?

 

[SPAnDAU]

If you are using an antennae, you will need one for your tv tuner. PCI tuners will always have a slightly better image than USB. Try the Hauppauge one, I have it and it's great.

Tuners automatically send the image to your primary display, there is no way to change that as far as I know.

 

[The Stigenator]

If you get the PCI based ATI TV Wonder .. remember you need one free IRQ .It doesnt want to share and IRQ with Sound Card or a Nic..
Not too a biggie, disable Com2 and you are set.

 

[BeHeMOTH]

I bought the STB\3dfx Desktop tv card works great watch tv and read forums!

 

[LarryJoe]

Another vote for the ATI TV Wonder. Great picture and great software.

LJ

 

[Mday]

i have the USB version, it's not the greatest, but it will do. of course you still need rabbit ears or some other fancy antennae.

 

[DarK SagE]

I have a Pinnacle PCI Tuner. It is pretty good, nice quality when compared to my samsung tv. I am actully looking to sell it so, contact me if u want it.

 

[TomY]

I have the Hauppauge WinTV Theater, works in Win2k! Also, I have heard of major problems with the software on the ATI-TV Wonder. Is this still the case?

 

[AMB]

I have the Hauppauge Win TV Theatre too, I think it works great and the picture quality is very good if you stand a few feet away from it.