TV Card

peterb

So I was thinking of getting a TV card for my PC, as I don't really have room for a TV in my tiny flat.

I'm not really sure what to look for.

Here are 2 things I found when I moved in :
http://img191.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=cimg3342.jpg
I think one is for chorus and one is a roof aerial or something.

If anyone can give me some advice, that would be great.

54kroc

The one looks like a sn6 so i'd say it's chorus, I think they still use them, you could always ring them and see if your place was connected, Where are you living?

thepcgp

I've always found the Hauppage cards to be good, everyone I've installed them for has been happy with them.

The connection type you have isn't a major issue, as you'll get whatever socket converters you need in Maplin or even in a lot of DIY shops.

Most decent cards will include a remote control. Some will come with software to allow you to record TV and even burn directly to MP4 DVD for watching on a standard DVD player. Some support digital, HD, and satellite signals. It all depends on what features you want.

If you want a cheap'n'cheerful card for just watching cable TV on your computer, I recommend the HAUPPAUGE WINTV-EXPRESS ANALOGUE PCI TV TUNER CARD. It's a fairly basic analogue tv card, so it won't work with digital tv (check with your provider). It can record and comes with a remote, and you should get one for under €60. If you need a supplier let me know. If you want something more upmarket, try the WinTV-HVR-1250, it does HD and also support recording. Both of these cards are VISTA CERTIFIED - another thing to check for if you are running vista.

darealtulip

can you advice me one for satellite? I got one but it won't find any channels, I'm running on vista

thepcgp

The Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 records component video (YCrCb) from cable TV and satellite set top boxes directly to your computer. It's an external unit that connects to the PC.

HD PVR is the world’s first High-Definition video recorder for making real-time H.264 compressed recordings at resolutions up to 1080i. HD-PVR records component video (YCrCb) from cable TV and satellite set top boxes, with a built-in IR blaster to automatically change TV channels for scheduled recordings. Audio is recorded using AAC or Dolby Digital.
The recording format is AVCHD, which can be used to burn Blu-ray DVD disks. Two hours of HD recordings, recorded at 5 Mbits/sec, can be burnt onto a standard 4.7 GByte DVD-R or DVD-RW disk for playback on a Blu-ray DVD player.
The HD PVRs amazing recording quality allows personal archival of your favorite high definition TV programs from any component video HD set top box. The HD PVR also has standard definition composite and S-Video inputs so you can record your old home video tapes into an AVCHD format for creating Blu-ray DVD recordings.
Features

• Built-in hardware H.264 high definition encoder, for high performance, high quality TV recordings
• Component video input from most high definition cable TV and satellite TV receivers. Optical or stereo audio inputs.
• Record high definition video at up to 1080i resolution, 720p or VGA/D1
• Record at datarates from 1Mbs to 13.5Mbs, constant and Variable Bit Rate
• Make Blu-ray format AVCHD recordings, so you can burn your TV recordings onto a standard DVD disk (up to 2 hours of video at 5MBits/sec) and playback on Blu-ray DVD players
• Includes HD software video player, so you can playback recordings to your PC screen
• Audio / Video component video loop through to allow HD recording and viewing at the same time
• High Performance Noise Reduction Function
• NTSC,PAL and SECAM Support
• IR receiver for remote control
• IR Blaster to change the TV channels in your set top box

Record formats

There are three formats which you can choose when recording a video:

• .TS which is a generic 'transport stream' compatible with many digital media players
• .M2TS which is compatible with the Sony Playstation3
• . MP4 which is compatible with the XBox360

All recording file types can be used to burn AVCHD Blu-ray compatible disk recordings.
The HD PVR files can also be burned onto a standard DVD+R or DVD+RW disk for playback in a Blu-ray disk player using the included Arcsoft TME Disk Create application.
The included TME Media Converter program may also be used to convert the .TS file to other formats compatible for playback on an iPhone and Ipod.

54kroc

darealtulip wrote: »

can you advice me one for satellite? I got one but it won't find any channels, I'm running on vista

I use the WIN TV Nova-S Plus it's a good basic card and it gets hd as well. Have a look here to buy it.

54kroc

On another note i started using windows 7 last week and the new media centre works very well with dvb-s easily the best setup for pc i've found.

darealtulip

thanks cork45, quick reply! nice to hear they work, bought mine and it didn't. Should have asked here first!! lesson learnt.


The winTv nova plus is the option for me I think, I want only 1 box and get rid of the sky box and put everything in my media computer.

thanks again

requiem1

The pinnacle 7010ix is the dogs bollox and the choice of most htpc builders, however they have stopped making them so it can be hard to get your hands on one. I got one off ebay for 40 a couple of weeks back. It has DVB-S and DVB-T tuners built in which is all you'll need in this country.