usb tv tuners

[mrwxyz]

I want to get a tv tuner, but my next comp might be a laptop (getting something new later next month). I've heard things about the usb versions of tv tuners lagging and offering very poor quality since the signal travels through usb instead of a more direct connection as with the pci cards (which are "built in"). Are the usb versions really that bad, should i stay away from those? Appreciate any input, especially from those that have/had one.

 

[Alkaline5]

If you get a high-end USB 2.0 tuner then you should be alright. Older USB1.1 solutions just didn't have enough bandwidth to work with. Something like the Hauppage WinTV-PVR-USB2 should be fine.

 

[SickBeast]

I can't see even the USB2.0 tuners being comparable to the PCI ones. 66MB/second vs. 4.8MB/second. Not much comparison there. Video=high bandwidth. I would go PCI unless you have a laptop or something.

 

[Ionizer86]

133MB/s vs. 480Mb/s-->60MB/s. Almost half the theoretical bandwidth.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I can't see even the USB2.0 tuners being comparable to the PCI ones. 66MB/second vs. 4.8MB/second. Not much comparison there. Video=high bandwidth. I would go PCI unless you have a laptop or something.

Actually, the video pushed out by an upscale tuner will be MPEG2, so it's only going to be 2.5MB/sec(20mb/sec) or so. Still, USB devices are more CPU intensive than PCI devices.

 

[azel]

On the other hand RF cable video doesn't need that much bandwidth. I don't see any difference in quality between my USB 1.1 Hauppage external vid-cap and my internal ATI All-In-Wonder card. Your cable signal clarity would probably be a bigger factor in terms of quality. Meanwhile, if you have HDTV in your area you might want to wait for the ATI HDTV-Wonder.

Even if you want to do higher quality capture with component, S-video, dv, etc USB 2.0 should be enough bandwidth. (The firewire standard for DV is theoretically slower than USB 2.0) We should also remember that USB would use more CPU power than PCI, though. In the end, PCI offers the cheapest and fastest solution but USB is more convenient without significant quality compromise. If watching TV on your screen is all you need, getting a NTSC to VGA upscan converter is another option. (You don't even need to turn on your PC for this one)