What kind of tuner card do you recommend for simple capture and recording?

[Melectricus]

I want to capture TV programs to my hard drive and burn to a DVD. All I want is a simple card or stick that I can connect to my cable antenna (comcast) not through a cable box and burn to a DVD.

I do not need HD since I am making them for my daughter in college who only has a standard dvd player and a 26" Samsung LCD TV.
Normally we just use our comcast DVR and record shows for later viewing, but I can't just burn a dvd and take it up to college of course.

I have windows xp home on my computers, I'll probably put the card in my x2 5000 system.
All the channels are below 99
I'd like to set up a schedule to record a few different recurring programs - so packaged software or stand alone is needed.

I'd like to keep the cost under $100. I don't have much knowledge in this area so advice is appreciated.

 

[sivart]

Just go to Wal-Mart and look for a cheap DVD Recorder that is a stand alone. It would be the easiest. You can do it with a tuner, but depending on how much you spend it will take additional time and effort.

DVD Recorder
1) Scan Channels
2) Set Timer / Record Shows
2a) (Optional) Edit out commercials
3) When disc is full, finalize.
4) Send to kid in college

PC Capture Card
1) Scan Channels
2) Manually set timer (or school VCR Style)
or
2) Find a third party program to bring in programming and schedule time
3) Make sure that your PC is on 24/7 so you don't miss a recording
4) Edit out commercials (optional) -- possibly purchase additional software
5) Take recording (probably MPG) and convert to DVD compliant format -- possibly purchase additional software
6) Author DVD (create menus, etc) -- again possibly purchase additional software
7) Burn DVD
8) Send to kid in college

I'd stick with the stand alone DVD recorder (or even one with a hard drive if you want to spend a little more) for ease of use for your purpose.

 

[Melectricus]

Thanks sivart, the DVD recorder is where I started but I bogged myself down trying to look at other options. I haven't done my homework on the DVD recorder so I may start there again.

You make a good point about the capture card, I was looking at cards because of the variety of options is gives. I looked at the hauppauge 1800 and that seemed pretty all encompassing on that end.