tv card

[ilovetheusers]

I have zero experience with TV cards but want one - I think.

My roomie watches every sporting event in the damn world 24/7, which is great if you like sports but as I can't stand them... To top it off, he gets to watch them on my 'spensive TV and Stereo. Oh well. So I think I'm gonna go get a TV card for my bedroom rhather than go buy a TV.

I know nothing about these things so here goes:

Can I use the card in addition to my video card?

What is a good brand and what features should I look for?

Does my Cable line running to my house work with it and as it's on the same line as my cable modem - will it have an effect upon bandwidth?

[gbbones]

I have used TV cards from Aver Media and Hauppauge.

They both work well but I guess I prefer the Hauppauge. The only reason for the preference is the problem I have saving a video to AVI format with the Aver card. I can't seem to view the AVI file from other computers.

The Hauppauge WinTV PVR is an awesome card for about $130. You hook up your cable-TV connection to it, run an auto-tuning utility and it finds all the channels you can get without any manual tuning. It has a remote so you can lounge on the couch and switch channels. It can pause live TV and do instant replays of live TV. You can record live TV to your HD like a VCR, too. If you just want to watch TV and don't need any of the extra features you can get the plain WinTV Tuner card for about $50-60.

It's a cool card. And, no it won't interfere with your cable modem.

[crazyman]

I have the AverMedia card,and it works great,sound plugs into the sound card,and there are 3 different sizes of the screen and also "full" screen.mine goes to 121 cable channels,I watch it all the time,it's pretty cool to have,btw,the resolution is very good,the picture quality is excellent.I have it on my secondary pc next to my main.
I highly recommend buying one of these cards.
here is the small size so you can work at the same time,you can drag it easily anywhere on the screen.

here is the large size.

and here is the Full screen.

this is on my little crappy 15" monitor,if I had it on my main with my 17" Viewsonic,it would look even better.

[Archangel42069]

I was recently given an ATI vid card with a TV tuner built in, and it seems to works pretty well. All I have been able to watch is static and video games, but on or about Dec. 13 I will be moving into my new house, which is actually located in this millenium, instead of 1963(I have no shower, no cable or DSL, and no grounded outlets).Anyway, the card has a GeForce 2 integrated, which is a lot better than my old TNT2Ultra. Anyway, once I get cable I'll let you know how it looks.

[Gabriel]

I use both ATI AIW series and Pinnacle standalone cards.
I must say I prefer ATI.


Just take one card that will do the trick easy - no need of a fancy Remote and all sorts.

Cheers,
Gabriel

[ilovetheusers]

One thing I forgot - how are the cheaper ones? Works OK or you get what you pay for? If I buy a card it's gonna be $50 or less because I may as well just buy a small TV if it's any more.

[NooNoo]

I here DocPC is going through his parts bin, a AIW 7500 64 is lurking, perhaps you should pm him ILTU?

[crazyman]

these are under $50
here
and here
I have an Aver unit like this.

[ilovetheusers]

Originally posted by NooNoo
I here DocPC is going through his parts bin, a AIW 7500 64 is lurking, perhaps you should pm him ILTU?

Gotta use PCI. My A-Bit KT7a-Raid is super picky about the AGP cards you put in. Anything remotely newer causes the thing to not boot. Nothing fixes it (bios updates, setting changes - several others have posted here and the only result was to use an old card).

Crazy - I am leaning toward that card. There is a best buy near me and they carry the ATI for the same $$ that you get online and I'm thinking about that too. Newegg has the Aver for $41.

[NooNoo]

The nice thing about tv capture though is being able to screen shot stills out of something when you want to do a presentation or something.... asking permission from the copyright holder first of course....

[ilovetheusers]

Originally posted by NooNoo
The nice thing about tv capture though is being able to screen shot stills out of something when you want to do a presentation or something.... asking permission from the copyright holder first of course....

With permission. Yup.

Both the cards I'm looking at do this and capture MPEG.

[crazyman]

Originally posted by ilovetheusers
Crazy - I am leaning toward that card. There is a best buy near me and they carry the ATI for the same $$ that you get online and I'm thinking about that too. Newegg has the Aver for $41.

ya,,I think either one of those would work great for you.



Dan

[ilovetheusers]

Got the ATI - it was 39.99 retail after a rebate of $10. so I paid $50. Same as getting one on line without the wait and a $10 rebate.

I'm reinstalling my OS right now and will give an update later tonight.

[crazyman]

Originally posted by ilovetheusers
Got the ATI - it was 39.99 retail after a rebate of $10. so I paid $50. Same as getting one on line without the wait and a $10 rebate.

I'm reinstalling my OS right now and will give an update later tonight.

Cool! sounds good! let us know,,and btw,what OS are you putting on?

[ilovetheusers]

2000. I have 392mb of ram and 2000 runs far better than XP with small amounts of ram. Not that is small but XP really doesn't seem happy until you really load it up with like 512. Also, I'm finding all sorts of little quirks with XP I'm not happy with, though I still use it on my other system.

All updates and drivers in - installed the card and it seems alright. It's not as clear as I thought it would be but I suppose that an image meant to be displayed at 320x240 displayed at 1024x768 is gonna be a little imperfect.

Sounds a little odd. It was a little flakey until I updated my drivers. Now there is a slight high pitched whine like from a normal TV. if you don't know what I mean - don't sweat it. Most people can't hear it.