TV Tuner

[Heusen77]

some help please; i have a Acer AL2223W 22" monitor and I would like to get a tv tuner to use with it. Can anyone recommend a good tv tuner? can be usb or any other..........


Thanks

 

[tenax]

there's a zillion of them out there..and maybe that's the problem eh..i can only tell you from experience that i like the hauppauge product. i have 2 pvr-150s (add on pci cards) and soon to get the hybrid 1800 pci-e card (as i need a free pci slot and hey, i may got atsc/quam recording down the road). i have had no problem over 3 years with the hauppauge add on pci card product. i can tell you i've had both the usb 2 hauppauge tuner and the usb 950 hybrid stick..and had issues with both. for various reasons, the hauppauge usb tuners while a good concept, are not ready for prime time but i'd vouch for the pci card versions in a second. picture quality and reliability and ease of setup is great on those.

others i've read used often and work great include:

avermedia product- might run a bit hotter in a case then hauppauge but apparently awesome pq.

saber- maybe some issue of support on those re: drivers but, those who have them seem to like them.

main thing i'd recommend- don't get usb..and do get a pvr in any case that uses hardware encoding, not software. if you're not familiar this means it uses the pvr card hardware not cpu to process recordings. software encoding which is generally what ati uses and hauppauge hybrid 950 stick relies on a powerful processor..these days, dual core minimum recommended otherwise potential for bad recordings (that result in jerky or out of sync playback) are very possible.

here's a link that can explain the pros and cons of hardware and software encoding. me, i'll always go with a pvr with hardware encoding if possible:

http://snapstream.helpserve.co...articleid=1378&nav=0,1

 

[Peter]

First of all you'll have to figure out what kind of input you have where you live. Off the air, cable, satellite? Digital or analog? Free or encrypted? What broadcast standard?

 

[tenax]

yep, all good questions

 

[luv2liv]

i have this ati 650 hdtv tuner. works awesome with vista media center. the cheapest ive seen it is 80 bux

 

[Steve]

His profile says he's in Barbados, do they have NTSC, PAL, or SECAM there?

 

[tenax]

good question steve..actually, they use NTSC

here's a handy little link and if you scroll down a bit, you'll find a completely country format list that's kind of handy

http://www.vjortho.com/misc/faq_n.shtml

 

[muppet22]

hi..i was wondering if i could get some advice on what tv tuner to get.

i live in california and dont currently have cable or sattelite, but i'm considering getting either DirecTV or comcast cable. i'm not interested in recording shows to watch later. i have windows xp pro, q6600 (quadcore), and a x1950pro (although i'm considering getting a better card and a 30" monitor). i dont have a tv currently so i would just watch tv on my monitor.

i've read bad reviews about various tv tuners..so i'm really lost as to what i should get

 

[zig3695]

i tend to stick with ATI or Hauppauge cards simply for the good compatibility. i only use vista media center, so i need well-known cards so i can install them without hassle. plus, ati generally makes good tuners no matter what model it is....

 

[tenax]

if it already has not been mentioned, ati generally are not preferred by many given their software, rather than hardware encoding. not sure if they have cards that hardware encode these days as well.

 

[Synomenon]

My VisionTek HD 650 Combo PCIe does hardware encoding. It uses the ATI Theater 650. AFAIK, all of ATI's 650 based tuners do hardware encoding.

 

[muppet22]

does the type of encoding only effect if/when you are recording? or does hardware encoding help when you're watching live

 

[zig3695]

Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
My VisionTek HD 650 Combo PCIe does hardware encoding. It uses the ATI Theater 650. AFAIK, all of ATI's 650 based tuners do hardware encoding.

that was the impression i had. furthermore, isnt a requirement for windows media center that you must have hardware encoding? i thought thats what made ati cards as compatible as they are. my tv wonder 650pro taxes my cpu maybe 10% at most ever.. its certainly not running in software.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: muppet22
does the type of encoding only effect if/when you are recording? or does hardware encoding help when you're watching live

The encoding mpeg2/4 is for recording.
You can add tv watching to a pc really cheaply and get good results.
I have a card I use just for watching tv, I have a dvr that I use to record show.
I have a svideo cable + audio cable from monoprice.com that I ran from the tv to the pc.
Cable is 14.00

http://monoprice.com/products/...id=2180&seq=1&format=2


When I want to watch tv I just open KMPlayer and select wdm/tv .
Its great at scaling the video up to 1024x768 , and I display it on my second monitor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_KMPlayer

I was using dscaler, but kmplayer is much better.


If your input source is satellite don't bother with a tuner thats hdtv/ntsc/etc.
All you need is a card that has svideo or composite inputs.
You can get one for under 20.00 .

http://www.geeks.com/details.a...tid=PTV-351-PB&cat=VCD

The reason I said don't worry about the hdtv/ntsc stuff is because with satellite your only going to be able to use the svideo/composite to connect the pc anyway.


If you have dish network and get the vip722 receiver its even better.
The one receiver has two different sat tuners one for the main tv and a second for another tv. It also comes with two remotes. One is the normal ir, the second UHF, that works anywhere in the house. I have the second output hooked to the pc, I can change channels, play the dvr, etc from the pc.

 

[muppet22]

ok i'm really ignorant when it comes to tv's and tv tuners (i've never owned either before).

so yeah, i can't run a cable from a tv to my monitor/video card because i don't have a tv!

The reason I said don't worry about the hdtv/ntsc stuff is because with satellite your only going to be able to use the svideo/composite to connect the pc anyway.

why is that?

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: muppet22
ok i'm really ignorant when it comes to tv's and tv tuners (i've never owned either before).

so yeah, i can't run a cable from a tv to my monitor/video card because i don't have a tv!

The reason I said don't worry about the hdtv/ntsc stuff is because with satellite your only going to be able to use the svideo/composite to connect the pc anyway.

why is that?

With satellite the signal comes in from the dish outside and into the satellite receiver.
The satellite receiver only ouptuts rf, composite, svideo, L,R, HDMI (if its hdtv ready).
The easiest to connect to a pc and have decent quality is composite or svideo.

You can input a full hdtv signal with hdmi to a pc, but its going to cost over one hundred dollars+ and require special software. You won't be able to just use anything out there.
Then the cable cost on top of that is going to add even more cost.

svideo is the way to go if your just wanting to watch tv on a pc without recording or displaying it on a big screen.

 

[muppet22]

im fine with no hdtv..
what tv tuner do you recommend?

 

[muppet22]

anyone? :]

 

[zig3695]

hauppauge pvr150mce. two of those are better then one pvr500mce imo, but maybe they have gotten better.

 

[muppet22]

i have xp pro though..and that doesn't support it

 

[Synomenon]

Go with an ATI Theater 650 PRO based card.
- Hardware Encoding / MPEG-2 compression
- Motion Adaptive 3D Comb Filter
- Noise Reduction
- Edge Enhancement
- Compatible with almost every PVR / TV tuning software out there
- Analog Cable / OTA Cable

Newegg has a Sapphire one for ~$54.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Peter
First of all you'll have to figure out what kind of input you have where you live. Off the air, cable, satellite? Digital or analog? Free or encrypted? What broadcast standard?

USB digital TV tuner wise I can highly recommend the Winfast DTV Dongle USB 2.0 ,works great even in Vista x64,obviously it has full XP and Vista driver support .

 

[muppet22]

hmm, ok i will look into these

 

[Elstupido]

Great price for that Shapphire! Go for it, it's a fine card for the price, as I have a 550 theater pro, and it works perfectly with Vista 64 bit

 

[muppet22]

Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
Go with an ATI Theater 650 PRO based card.
- Hardware Encoding / MPEG-2 compression
- Motion Adaptive 3D Comb Filter
- Noise Reduction
- Edge Enhancement
- Compatible with almost every PVR / TV tuning software out there
- Analog Cable / OTA Cable

Newegg has a Sapphire one for ~$54.

ah nice. this looks like a good buy. what do you guys do for a remote though? you buy one separate? if so how do you make it work with this?