TV on my computer

padraigmyers

Was wondering does anyone have any expierence with any of the TV Tuner cards availible at the moment.
I have a computer in my room and I was hoping to use it as a TV too.
What is the quality like when they are ran full-screen, what sort of processor use?
Can you record to file (say MPEG or AVI) using them?
Any recomomendations for a good cheap one (a remote would be handy!)?

oneweb

I have a Hauppauge WinTV Theatre card, which comes with Remote, Dolby Surround output, Radio, quality is quite good, but greatly depends on the strength of your signal (any weak signal looks worse).
Processor wise, I can't say I've noticed any difference at all. I think the card uses its own, and the graphics card's processor.
Having said that, I've had it a few years so I'm not too sure what price it would be, if it's still available.
There are some cards that act as a Personal Video Recorder (PVR), tho my card has the ability to record as AVI anyway. There are external apps you can get which will rewcord from the TV card. DivX encoding seems to be the way to go so look out for that capability.

esquier

I`ve got an Avertv studio 203 which has also got fm stereo radio, the picture quality is good, i`ve got a digisender hooked up to mine from the skybox as well as co-ax. It captures to Mpeg2 or less, I`d be wary of avi the file sizes could be a bit large. Great as a vcr tho the radio is only so-so as in the previous post depends on the signal strength. Also go composite and s-video inputs so a handy all round card.

madboy

Hi
i'm using a Hauppaguge win TV go card about 5 years.
the reception is good using a 50 ft co ax but sky digital is quite poor as i'm using one of those magic eyes that allow u to change the station.I would agree that a big processor is not required my last pc was a 650 athlon and it worked fine but recording to the hard drive in video (u can also take still pictures)was a bit of a struggle but now with a 2400+ athlon its no problem,i use windows movie maker(free from microsoft)to get vid camera movies onto the hard drive using s-video and audio in on the card
these low end cards is now very cheap from 40 to 60euro newer ones like the theatre modle also support surround and dolby so just suit your budget and look at the website for details http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/
I had some messing with drivers and found that some worked better and there was some configuration to be done in the settings to get the best picture but i'm guessing that newer cards will be easier to set up

Tivoli

i have an avermedia studio, its conncected by pci card, but sadly plugged into the line in on my soundcard,

good
works well, nice picture once you stand back about 5 feet, records in vcd format

bad
it makes so much background noise that i have to mute it in the volume controls and unmute* before i use it




* insert a real word here

OfflerCrocGod

I have the same noise problem with my WinTV PCI card it makes a lot of static crackling noise when the speakers are left on top volume, muting it usually removes a good portion of that noise.

ST

Do all the above sound cards have Nicam Stereo sound or is the sound Mono?

Maplins have one on special offer at the moment with remote control on their website. Don't know what the quality is like.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/module.asp?CartID=040111230559636&moduleno=-637&modulecode=

esquier

The studio 203 receives in stereo tho not nicam and the Maplin card records to AVI which, in my view is not the best format, ie. file sizes. A card to consider would be the Leadtek Winfast2000xp, that seems a good card and costs circa £39.

esquier

Check this http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/leadtek/tv2000xp/tv2000xpp1.htm

madboy

In relation to the crackly sound I found that fine tuning the stations a couple of points cured the problem but you have to wait a few seconds after the few clicks for the noise to go then move onto the next.
for example the card tunrd in Net2 on 207.500MHz but I have it on 208.000MHz

carrolls

I bought a HP TV card in PC World recently for €39 and used with Dscaler DeInterlacing software (Freeware) and a 17 inch LCD monitor, the picture from Irish terrestrial and Sky is nothing short of amazing. Better than I could have possibly hoped for.
Did a comparison test on my PC LCD and my TV (Philips 28 inch WS)
and could make out small writing and objects on my PC LCD much better than on my TV. (Even though my LCD is only 17'')
By the way Dscaler DeInterlacing software works with all TV cards, and doubles the horizontal resolution of your original picture.
http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/