TV Tuners - Anybody has one?

[elwhappo]

Ever since i realized my cable modem cable could be split and used as cable TV, I've been interested in a TV Tuner. I have my eyes on the ATI TV WONDER or the Asus TV BOX?
Could anyone comment on these?

Also, Anandtech has a review of the ATI TV WONDER PCIand has a captured bit of TV available for viewing in the review. Is the quality as good as the captured video or better?

Captured video

 

[Duvie]

I have the ati tv wonder...My advice is that you can get great tv picture as long as you have some good cable, maybe a line filter, otherwise you sit so close to your monitor as compared to you TV you really see the inperfections.

Also to capture high quality you need a big ass HDD and at least 750mhz...I have a 750@825 and it seems to drop some frames at the highest setting.

If I had to do it over I would wait or get the AIW radeon so I can have the option of tv on demand, and can capture to mpeg2 as opposed to only mpeg1 or avi with tv wonder card.

 

[Ronstang]

I have the Pinnacle PCTV PRo and I really like it, in fact I am watching Kelly's Heroes on it right now as I type. It has a good picture, stereo sound and a remote control. If your lucky you can still find one at Office Depot on clearance for about $50, they are currently selling on Buy.com for about $80.

 

[Smbu]

I have a Hauppage WinTV GO. It works great in both Win98SE and Win2k. My only complaint is that it only has mono sound, but that's what I get for $30, right? BTW they do have stereo sound ones, but they cost more.

I also have an ADS Channel Surfer TV. It was pretty good, except that it had problems w/my Nvidia cards(first the 32mb TNT2 M64 and then my 32mb Geforce 2 GTS card) It wouldn't display the picture at full screen. It worked fine with my older ATI Rage Pro card and my old (now destroyed)Intel i740 card. I haven't tried it with the Intel i752 integrated video on my CUSL2, but that's just because I can't seem to find the tv tuner card. That's why I bought the WinTV GO as a replacement for the Channel Surfer TV.

 

[hans007]

i have had tv tuners. I never liked them , the tuners always got soo much interference. The best way to go is get a radeon vivo or something, and hook up a vcr, so that the tuner isn't getting interference INSIDE the computer. Personally i have a tatung tv box (should be out at compusa some times soon, mine was a sample) . external boxes are much more convenient, only down side is you dont get vid capture if you need that

 

[Smbu]

hans007 is right there is a lot of interference from inside the case. The lower channels (pretty much 7 and below)are unwatchable on my Wintv GO card when using only the card(of course it could just be my horrible cable). I have mine hooked up to my Sony SLV-N50 vcr and watch tv through the vcr. All the channels are pretty much fine through the vcr, plus I can use the vcr remote to change channels, so I don't have to be next to my keyboard.

 

[Pers]

i use my vcr remote to change the channels too. But there is no interference with my cable...it seems fine to me even when its not hooked through the vcr.

 

[dcdomain]

never had any problems with my Hauppauge WinTV Theatre...

 

[Smbu]

Like I said it could just be my horrible cable.


<< (of course it could just be my horrible cable) >>

 

[RobsTV]

Perfect TV Tuner picture quality, as well as perfect 30fps capture at 640x480 (except for huge file size), using Avermedia TV '98. Perhaps some cards have better shielding, or perhaps interference may be caused by certain video cards, or even case fans. In any case, no interference here.

Anyone know of any free capturing software that will save in mpeg instead of AVI, so I can still get good quality captures, without the huge file size?

 

[dapic]

I have the AIW Radeon, on win2k. It has the Guide Plus program to work with it, so you can get the program schedules. I once schedule-recorded a movie from cable and found out the replay (from Mpeg2) actually has better picture than the live TV.

I am not sure if TV wonder VE works on win2k. don't know if that's of your concern.

 

[zsir]

Robs

check here

That's not free but there is a 30 day free trial and it will capture off your card to mpeg2.

I'm not familair with Avermedia but my Hauppage card worked great. The new Hauppauge PVR card would be sweet, but kinda of pricey.

 

[HumblePie]

I have question that is along the lines of this topic... Anyone out there have any experience with digital cable signals and TV tuner cards? I only have Digital cable access in my house (duno why go figure) and I was told by the cable company I need a digital box to decode the signal and older analog stuff wouldn't work. I duno how truthful that was so I'm asking here. If that is the truth then are there any cards out there that are capable of decoding a digital signal so that I can watch TV on my comp? Thanks ahead of time for any useful information that may be posted here.