TV Tuners? Which One

[live4spd]

OK, I'm considering getting a TV Tuner for my Computer. I want to watch TV, and possibly record some shows. I have some prior experience with the original All In Wonder ATI. I'm leaning toward the new 8500 DV All in Wonder. Is it worth checking Nvidia's product or not?

Anybody have some tips for either product and what I can expect?

I currently have a Matrox G200 so gaming performance will be improved with either, I'm not really into games too much anyway. (Mostly Age of Empires II)

 

[DaLurker28]

Well, in terms of add on TV Tuners. It's basically split between the ATI TV Wonder, and the Hauppauage WinTV. I've heard a mix bag w/ the Win TV, some saying it's great, whereas other's saying it doesn't look good. Can't record, and etc. I have a TV Wonder myself, and i love it. Picture quality is great, software works fine (surpised?) and all in all a great product. I've seen a TV Wonder and a Win TV, and i found that TV Wonder has better color saturation, and is crisper and sharper.

If you're looking for a all in one card, and you dont play a lot of first person shooters, you can save yourself some money and pick up a All In WOnder Radeon. Enough juice for Age of Empire 2, supplies all the extra stuff (except hydravision and firewire) that the 8500 DV supplies, and you'll have enough money left behind to get a new monitor or something.

 

[Beater]

Yep, gotta agree the TV Wonder is a great TV Tuner card if ya get past the install which was fairly complicated. Also gotta agree the All In Wonder Radeon is the best Tuner/Vid Card combo, least till the 8500 All In Wonder comes out!

 

[Smbu]

I would rather have a separate TV tuner card over an integrated one. That way you can still upgrade the video card and keep the tv tuner. I used to have an ATI AIW Radeon, but when I wanted to upgrade the video card I had to get rid of the integrated tv tuner also. I'm currently using a WinTV USB with my Visiontek GF3 Ti500 and my laptop.

It would probably be better to go with a pci card rather than a usb tv tuner. The picture quality of the wintv usb is not as good as my former Hauppage WinTV GO pci card, or the AIW Radeon. I didn't really notice a difference between the AIW Radeon and the WinTV Go card, although the GO card only had mono sound, but there are other WinTV models with stereo sound.

If I didn't still need the WinTV USB for use with my laptop, I'd probably buy a WinTV pci card again.

 

[Beater]

Good point Smbu, best ta go with the seperate tuner so ya can upgrade the vid card and keep the tuner. As you stated the TV pic is not as good with the USB cause of the limited amount of data it can transfer. Voice sync, picture quality and things like that just don't measure up ta PCI!

 

[live4spd]

Well in my case I think I'd rather stay with a All in one type card. By the time I care enough to upgrade video It'll be time for a new TV Tuner as well. I'm using a G200 after all.

Anyone use the Nvidia TV Tuners?

 

[Beater]

As far as I know the Nvidias use the Phillips tuner, same as ATI so that should be the same TV wise, unfortunately I hear that's the only way they are the same as they reportedly suffer in all other areas !

 

[Chubbz]

i just got my TV Wonder from an AT'er, so far the box seems great, i just need to go buy a 50 foot tv cable, then its onto capturing heaven i go!

 

[epod]

I have a TV Wonder as well and I love it. I record my daily episode of Friends & Smallville and etc. It records beautifully. I then convert the MPeg-2 to DiVx to save space.

Works in Win 2K and XP. Just follow the instructions they tell you when you install the MMC 7.1

Also I had it work for my Geforce 2 GTS & my Radeon 8500. No conflicts there at all.

 

[videobruce]

TV tuners and video cards should be separate.
I've never have seen any good video from cards with tuners on them!
Just like video out: very poor results!

As far as I'm concerned save your money forget about watching NTSC on a computer tuner or otherwise. Computer monitors are made for RGB not NTSC!

Ten years of doing video production and they are a long way from getting moving video and computers to work!