TV tuner cards

[yesdiseases]

I'm looking for a tv video card around 50 US DOllars.
I've found:
ATI TV WONDER VE - RETAIL $49.00

Asus TV FM Video Tuner Capture Card Model 7133 Retail $55.99

Compro VideoMate TV Gold Plus PCI TV Tuner Card w/ TitanTV EPG - Retail $59.00

TV LEADTEK WINFAST "DELUXE" TV2000XP TV/FM MULTIMEDIA CARD - RETAIL BOX $48.00

MSI TV@nywhere Master Model MS-8606 Retail $53.99

The Leadtek has gotten solid reviews all around, but the MSI and ASUS have 10-bit ADC which is much better than the Leadtek and ATI's 8bit ADC. So I assume picture quality will be better on those. What would you guys recommend? I'm leaning towards the MSI but I've read it might have compatibility problems with Windows XP SP1. At least for now, I just want to watch tv on my computer.

Here are my system specs:

asus a7v333 w/promise raid
athlon xp 2200 thoroughbred A
512MB DDR333
2 maxtor 60gb drives
sound blaster audigy gamer
nvidia geforce ti4600
dvd-rom & cdrw drives from liteon
windows xp SP1

i think that's it.

Thanks for your help

 

[poncherelli2]

I have the leadtek and its been great. I have absolutely no complaints about picture quality using the builtin package or dscaler.

 

[Amorphus]

then again, WinAmp TV has negated all benifits of "real TV" for me now.

 

[nycxandy]

I have the ATI TV Wonder PCI and it's great... I wished it had a remote though.

 

[lun]

if i might suggest a something a bit different than those you have mentioned, check out this guy:

TV & FM PCI Tuner Card

not only does it flaunt features that rival most other TV tuner cards and TiVo oriented hardware, it also acts as an FM tuner. This would really polish off an HTPC. i use one and i couldn't be happier with its performance. Especially at US$31.00

<3 lun

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: yesdiseases

Asus TV FM Video Tuner Capture Card Model 7133 Retail $55.99

...if its mostly for recording TV. Newer chipset, higher quality.

TV LEADTEK WINFAST "DELUXE" TV2000XP TV/FM MULTIMEDIA CARD - RETAIL BOX $48.00

...if its for watching TV. Older chipset, works with Dscaler.

 

[yesdiseases]

Sorry what is Dscaler?

 

[SharkyTM]

get the leadtek, it has an FM tuner as well (if you care), plus remote and IR sensor. The software pack is pretty good, as are the drivers. Plus, they get updated a lot.

 

[Maleficus]

Originally posted by: lun
if i might suggest a something a bit different than those you have mentioned, check out this guy:

TV & FM PCI Tuner Card

not only does it flaunt features that rival most other TV tuner cards and TiVo oriented hardware, it also acts as an FM tuner. This would really polish off an HTPC. i use one and i couldn't be happier with its performance. Especially at US$31.00

<3 lun

how is this different?

also im looking for a nice TV Tuner card as well. nothing super fancy but i do want good quality.

 

[MasterHoss]

I have the Leadtek. Overall, I'm OK with it... the software is very buggy (each update may fix previous bugs but introduces new ones).

 

[blodhi74]

got the leadtek last week. within 20 mins I was watching TV on my second monitor.software bundle is decent and get a remote. PVR functionality is awsome and not to mention the FM part. U can record music in mutiple formats from the radio. And best of all CPU usage is only 2% to 8% with a few browser windows open

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Maleficus

Originally posted by: lun
if i might suggest a something a bit different than those you have mentioned, check out this guy:

TV & FM PCI Tuner Card

not only does it flaunt features that rival most other TV tuner cards and TiVo oriented hardware, it also acts as an FM tuner. This would really polish off an HTPC. i use one and i couldn't be happier with its performance. Especially at US$31.00

<3 lun

how is this different?

also im looking for a nice TV Tuner card as well. nothing super fancy but i do want good quality.

It's likely no different than the Leadtek; same basic features, probably similar hardware, but my gut feeling is that because it's an "off-brand", the software/drivers will be lacking.

 

[jdogg707]

Another Leadtek vote...

 

[Atlantean]

I have an ati tv wonder pro remote edition... I haven't used it yet though so I cant say if its good or not, but the remote sure is damn nice. Oh and I just built my pc last week so I am still busy playing games on the 9800 pro thats why I havent used the tv wonder yet.

 

[vailr]

The Leadtek Winfast 2000XP Deluxe uses the older BT878 8-bit chip; the Leadtek Winfast 2000XP Expert uses the newer 10-bit Conexent chip.
The ATI TV Wonder VE is also 8-bit, where the newer TV Wonder PRO is 10-bit.
More bits=higher quality.
None of these tuner cards include a hardware MPG2 encoder. For that, look at the Hauppauge 250 MCE card. With MPG2 hardware encoder, CPU usage stays low (about 2%) during video capture.http://www.computers4sure.com/Product.asp?ProductID=1816540&iid=342

 

[Jaybot]

Hey guys I was wondering if you know of any other higher end tv/tuner cards, that can also support rca connections, so i can plug my playstation into it and play on my monitor and stuff.

 

[ViRGE]

Jaybot, even the Leadtek supports RCA; it has an S-Video port, along with an additional cable that lets you plug in a composite cable(RCA yellow) in to the S-Video port. As for sound, you're going to need to buy a seperate RCA->Minijack converter if you want to put the PS2's sound on your machine too.

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: yesdiseases
Sorry what is Dscaler?

Do a Google for it. Dscaler is a program that does real time deinterlacing. If you do mostly ?viewing? you?ll end up there eventually after you find out how horrible your card?s factory software is. TV tuner makers don?t put much effort into software and drivers

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Anyone Tried Hauppauge Cards?

 

[drag]

I use a ATI Wonder VE model.

Works great in linux, worked like crap in windows. For some reason the video drivers with Nvidia card conflicted horribly with the drivers for the TV capture card.

Otherwise the card is great. It uses a different chipset BTW then what is used in the All in Wonder cards.

Thinking back, I'd definately get the higher end ATI Wonder TV capture card. It supports stuff like running the sound thru the PCI slot vs a line in plug to the sound card. Definately something to think about if you want to have the Line-in open on your sound card or want to run multiple TV cards.

The hauppage cards seem to be very popular. Especially if you get one that does Mpeg2 encoding. If your plan on doing the timeshifting PVR type thing that could be very important. IN order to pause and rewind/fastforward "live" video stuff you have to play and record streams similtaniously off of your harddrive. The best way to do this is by encoding it as a Mpeg2 stream ON THE FLY. So your encoding/decoding/reading/writing all at the same time. A hardware encoder and decoder (I think) will take a huge burden off of your CPU. Also SMP helps a lot too, since you can have one decoding and another dealing with the I/O.


Check out MythTV for a free PVR-style program.

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: chocoruacal

Originally posted by: yesdiseases
Sorry what is Dscaler?

Do a Google for it. Dscaler is a program that does real time deinterlacing. If you do mostly ?viewing? you?ll end up there eventually after you find out how horrible your card?s factory software is. TV tuner makers don?t put much effort into software and drivers

I have to disagree. I've had the Asus card (without the FM tuner on it) since it was released with it's WHQL drivers and PowerVCR software and I've never EVER had a problem with it.

EVER.

 

[matrixwalker]

TV Wonder VE, only if ur planning on an AIW card as well. Then, u can use it for picture in picture. get a TV wonder Pro if ur gonna use a standalone TV tuner card.