Watching TV on computer (Capture Card)

[chriscayton]

Hi everyone,

I am just looking to be able to watch tv on my computer. I have a Sapphire Radeon 9800pro if that matters (I think it does). What would be the best capture card to get that has the best image quality for the price?

Thank you all for your help,
Grant

 

[jkresh]

If you just want to watch TV on the computer then a cheap tuner (leadtek...) should be fine, check snapstream and see what they are compatible with as its pretty good pvr software. If you don?t have that powerful a processor (2 GHz or more p4, 1.5 or more athlon) and you want to record then you need a card with hardware mpeg2/mpg4 encoding which leaves you looking at a Hauppauge winpvr 250. Hauppauge?s hardware is good but they are terrible with software updates, so expect the card to not work at all in longhorn. Another option would be to sell your 9800 and get a 9800aiw (depending on what you can sell it for upgrade should be cheaper then buying the Hauppauge and possibly similar to one of the software only cards). It can do some encoding in hardware and is pretty good quality, plus ati will be offering an HD add on for 9600,9700 and 9800 aiw's sometime this spring/summer.

 

[Peter]

The limiting factor in TV image quality is the TV signal. Even the simple TV cards are good enough to digitize this signal in all its "glory".

Keep the TV card separate, since you'll keep it over a handful of mainboard and graphics cards updates. Which to buy? Go by features - stereo audio, composite and svideo inputs, remote control, DVR software, etc. etc.

 

[chriscayton]

All I am looking for is to watch tv. I just purchased the 9800pro maybe a month ago and I got a P4c 3ghz. I should of thought of this when I bought the video card, but the prices on the 9800 aiw is up there. So I guess I will just pick up a cheap tuner card, just don't know what brands to look for. I saw the ati tuner, but I dont need a remote control and all that other stuff (just the card).

Thanks for all your help and answers everyone.
Grant

 

[Peter]

The Leadtek and Lifeview cards offer the complete feature set (stereo, S-Video input, radio, remote control) for good prices. The major brand stuff (Hauppauge, Pinnacle) is technically no better (using the same chips anyway) but much more expensive.

 

[trackxyj]

I got one of this, now it is $36.

Discussion see: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mes...eadid=232090&highlight_key=y&keyword1=leadtek

Product see: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-122-181&depa=1

They also have a deluxe version for $52 see: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-122-132&depa=1