Video Capture Options

[whosey]

I have been wanting to use my system to as a DVR for some time now. I have started looking at tuner cards and everyone I have looked at has left me with one glaring question. Are there any Tuner/Video Capture cards that have a Video Out option? All the cards I have looked at, and they have ranged from ATI to Leadtek, have multiple ways of getting video into the PC, but not any ways other than recording to various media of outputting it to a television. Essentially what I want to do is be able to run my cable to my system and then out to the TV so that I can still watch TV when I want.

 

[Peter]

Your graphics card very possibly has various kinds of TV-out options right there - Composite, SVideo, and if it's halfway recent, Component and DVI as well.

 

[DefDC]

I used a cheapie $20 NV 5200 w/S-vid out. The picture ain't great, but neither is the stuff I rip...

I cap stuff that doens't need high res like "The Daily Show" on the 'puter, and output to the 5200 using a nearly silent Dell to my livingroom tv. Definlately not the best pic, but it works nicely!

I'm looking to set up something nicer for sports and TV series where the res would make a nice difference.

If you want to go bottom dollar and aren't concerned about the best video quality you might try:
Leadtek Winfast 2000 series. ($20-$30) It does NOT do hardware encoding, but still gives a decent picture. You can use TitanTV with the included software for free. It's rudimentary, but functional. My shows are scheduled without me touching the box. It doesn't have a pretty interface, suggestions, or much else, but for the price, it's great.