TV Tuner for Computer

[Ya Hey Der]

I just got a new computer with Microsoft Media Edition operating system and I was thinking of getting a TV Tuner.

A) is it worth it

what kind would you recommend

C) how does this actually work

Thanks for all the help.

YHD

[nofishfisherman]

My Sony Viao had a program called Giga Explorer on it when I bought it. Hooked up my cable to the computer through the normal coaxial cable and it works great. Its nice having to have tv on the LCD screen. I can also record shows or movies and burn them to DVD's.

But this all came with my computer so I am not sure how it works when you need to go buy the stuff yourself though.

[Valv]

If you pay shipping I will send you mine, I bought it last year to transfer videotape to DVD but never used it. It even has a remote control, it's the internal PCI version, not external so you will gain speed.

I hate to toss it, if you want it let me know.

[Genofish]

Val, i will take the TV Tuner if it is still available.

[email protected]

[Valv]

Well I offered to the guy that started this thread, if he doesn't take it I will give it to you.

[PierBridge]

What brand Computer? the model number would be helpful also....a lot of the newer Media Center PC's come with a Single TV tuner usually with remote, but a dual TV tuner is the way to go and that's usually an upgrade.

[nitro]

You need a tuner that has drivers supported by Media Center. I use it as my main entertainment hub and think its great. A good resource is www.thegreenbutton.com.

[311Hemi]

-Nitro, thanks for that link. Never been on that site before. I am always on avsforum.com.

Is it worth it depend on what you are looking to get out of it(why do you want it?). There are a lot of ways to go when doing this. Let me know if this is to much.....I recently started building a home theater PC and have been researching a lot of this lately. I was planning on using it for a TV tuner that could also record my TV shows (basically building Tvio). All this and also I require support for HD...which is where things get tricky.

-How fast is your computer? I assume it's new.

-Are you using it with cable or just an over-the-air antenna?

-Are you planning on hook the computer to a TV for viewing?

-Is HD TV a concern.

-Do you plan to record and replay? (on a TV)?

-Or are you just looking to be able to watch TV on your computer and monitor and thats it?

All these things need to be thought about when setting this up.

Some cards you could look into:

-Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150MCE tuner card (for Windows media center)

-Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 (or 350) TV tuner card

-ATI eHome Wonder

[Shawnny B]

I looked into this once and I remember something to the effect, dont expect as great of a picture on your monitor as you will recieve on your tv. This being said because your monitor can take a better resolution from your computer, where as the standard CATV or AIR input is of poor quality for your monitor. Anyone agree with that? I know I have been in numerous homes with TV Tuners in the computers and not once have I seen a great picture.

Shawnny B

[Valv]

Quote:

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I looked into this once and I remember something to the effect, dont expect as great of a picture on your monitor as you will recieve on your tv. This being said because your monitor can take a better resolution from your computer, where as the standard CATV or AIR input is of poor quality for your monitor. Anyone agree with that? I know I have been in numerous homes with TV Tuners in the computers and not once have I seen a great picture.

Shawnny B

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Actually it's the other way artound, you will get an excellent picture on your computer compared to any TV, the pixel resolution is always higher on computer monitors, wether it's analog or digital picture.