Computer TV tuners

[BradOlson]

Do any of you use TV tuners on your computer? If so, what kind do you use Please vote in the poll and comment.

[BradOlson]

I use a USB TV tuner. The exact model is linked right here: http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonderusb20/specs.html

[BradOlson]

The first option should read Internal TV tuner card without FM radio

[KevinP]

There's no option for this. I have a Sling Box.

[Russ]

Hauppauge WinTV with AM/FM...PCI

[BradOlson]

Also add Sling Box to the poll

[Andrew T.]

I have no TV tuner card. I do have an older Iomega Buz video-capture device, however, which suffices for taking screenshots of video images (as I like to do from time to time):

http://community.wvu.edu/~ast002/new/ea-monolith.jpg

[bldg blok]

Hauppauge WinTV with AM/FM...PCI

Ditto.

Came with a Gateway Windows Media Center Edition PC I bought in the Spring of this year.

[Doug Sclar]

I have several Hauppage internal cards as well as a USB tuner. I also have three Slingboxes. I also have a fourth Slingbox which I have installed in San Diego where there is over 2mbs outbound bandwidth. The Padres do not broadcast on satellite but do have a cable channel. Now I can watch it anytime I want in pretty good quality.

I don't know if this counts, but I also have a vga-ntsc converter so I can route internet video to a modulator so I can watch it on any TV in the house.

[thxdave]

ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500 which I've had for about 3 years. Started off with their very first All-In-Wonder cards years ago. For my purposes, they are fine as I use it to keep Comedy Central or Discovery popped into the corner of my computer screen while surfing the web.

[AndrewS]

I have an ATI HDTV Wonder. I also have, but am not currently using, an ATI All In Wonder 9700pro, and a Hauppage PVR 250. I plan to put them in a media PC I'll be building.

[thxdave]

Andrew, how do you like that HDTV tuner? I was considering getting that one but I'm not sure my old system will handle it.

[BradOlson]

Doug, is the USB tuner you have the same as the one I have?

[Doug Sclar]

Doug, is the USB tuner you have the same as the one I have?

I don't think so. Mine is a Hauppauge which I got in 2001. I got it for use with the laptop while travelling but haven't used it in a few years. It does not support MTS audio IIRC. It was USB 1.0 and IIRC there wasn't enough throughput to support the stereo audio. :shake:

[BradOlson]

My USB doesn't support stereo audio from coax, but it does support stereo audio from RCA connections, but for a computer, I can live with mono sound.

[CODOR]

ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500 which I've had for about 3 years.
I have the 8500DV, which is identical except it only has 64MB of memory (I think the 8500 has 128) and two Firewire ports. It's good enough for capturing VHS sources, and one of these years I'll get around to putting my home movies onto DVD with it.

I'd like to upgrade the graphics card, but I'm reluctant to replace it since I'll need not only a TV tuner/capture card, but also a separate Firewire card...

[AndrewS]

Andrew, how do you like that HDTV tuner? I was considering getting that one but I'm not sure my old system will handle it.

I'm not too thrilled with it, actually. I'm constantly disappointed with ATI software, and the software with this is no exception. Among the irritations are the fact that the ATI software only allows display on you primary monitor. I have my LCD TV set up as a secondary monitor, so I have to swap them before I can watch HDTV on it. Other software lets me use it on either monitor, so there really is no excuse. It stutters at times, but I do believe that is related to reception, rather than performance. My system is a P4 2.6 GHz with 1.5 GB of RAM.

I'm only using the puny little antenna that came with it, so reception could be better. I haven't tried using the PVR features, so I can't really comment on those. I plan to pick up another LCD TV over the holidays which has a built in ATSC tuner.

I'll say this, though, HDTV looks amazing when it's working properly!

[Sckott]

PCI Tuner card with FM, Video capture. Made by Conexant.

Very reliable. Only problem I had was with a mismatched XP driver.

[hanjie]

I intend to get one soon. Anyone cares to compare the pros and cons of an internal card versus a USB one?

[JorgeGvb]

I have a ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro. I find that I don't use it as much as I thought I would. Probably because my computer is in a room with another TV and TiVO.

[Duggeh]

I have the Winfast PVR2000 with hardware mpeg2 encoding and direct to dvd burning. Thing is that the software for it is so utterly utterly abominable that ive rarely used it since i got it.

[jkauff]

No matter what card you have, you'll almost certainly get a better quality picture if you download a copy of ChrisTV and use it instead of whatever crap software came in the box. It's shareware, and well worth the modest price.

[AndrewS]

I've been using WatchHDTV, and while it's simple, it does seem pretty good. Certainly better than ATI's garbage. I'll check out ChrisTV too. Thanks for the heads up.

*edit* Scratch that. It doesn't support digital tuners. Not useful for the HDTV Wonder.

[BradOlson]

I have just gotten an AverMedia AverTV Hybrid Ultra USB TV/FM tuner and the tuner (both TV and FM) is much better than ATI's TV Wonder USB 2.0.

[Cornholio]

I've got a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 card. No AM/FM tuner but I didn't need one.