Corey

The cable company put a new outlet in my computer/bedroom last week to bring the complex up to code here. With the new outlet I can either put another TV in here (that's not going to happen) or use it for the cable connection for the 'Net instead of the way it's hooked up now through the wall, and into the living room. Or...... I thought about a TV tuner card seperate from the video card in there now, as I don't plan on putting in an ATI All In Wonder card (comes with TB built in) as I have a good card now. Anyone running a TV tuner card? How is the quality of them? I found a USB one with Mr. Google. Not sure how the USB ones work, but I have a few PCI slots available also to add a card if that's a better alternative. Do most come with software also to tape a show on your hard drive? This way while the VCR is taping a show in the living room, the PC could do the same if I am not home and need to record two things at once. The same place also has the PCI card. Looks like you can use a remote with them also.

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Churnd

That looks cool. I couldn't find anywhere that told whether or not it would record to the hard drive. Seems to me that the USB card might give more lag than the PCI card, since it's converting it all to digital to show on the PC. I've always preferred PCI over USB if you want the best performance.

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CLin9383

i had a tv tuner card(pci) in my last computer and i have a 19 inch monitor. watching tv on that is ok. it's only convient if you are watching football and you have your fantasy league up. the picture quality looks pretty good and you can record to your hard drive but the space it takes is not worth it IMO. good luck!

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1996 Limited

Hbum

I had an ATI TV Wonder USB Edition hooked up to my old computer for a while. I didn't like it much. Thought that my old machine just did not have enough horsepower to make it work right. I do not have it hooked up to the new machine. Just looked at it and it does not say it is compatible with XP. Also checked out ATI and seems they do not make this thing anymore. Looks like you would have to get a PCI card tuner. I would offer to loan it to you and you could see if you like it, but seems it is not XP compatible.

I looked at ATI and they sure don't tell you much about their products. They do make TV cards.

Here's a test of TV cards from Toms Hardware
http://www6.tomshardware.com/video/20000418/index.html

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H. M. Bumgardner Jr.
2000 4Runner Limited

sick4runner

i had a ATI all in wonder installed in my new dell 8300 for college (at the parents expense ) and i love it! it can record days of tv to my hard drive in dvd quality, it has tv on demand so you can pause tv or skip commercials, you can schedule it to record shows if you are gone, the c absolute coolest thing is that it can be displayed transparently on the desktop behind watever you are working on ( so while i write my english papers i can see the tv as a ghost image behind it its cooool!! ) i have had to reistall drivers a few times and occasionally there are conflicts with my soundblaster audigy sound card, but new drivers take care of that nd most likely the new cards wont ahve problems,

it all really depends on how much you think you will use it, but som eof the extras are really cool, oh yeah there is also a channel surf function, click on it and it displays a freeze frame of every chanel that refreshes every thirty seconds, that way you can see whats on all the channels and double click on what you want to watch.

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1990 4runner, love em or hate em toyota's are still the best! uhoh! new powerful engine + old tired tranny = tranny rebuild coming soon. and a bit of suspension work to boot.

Corey

Thanks for the tips guy's
HBum, reading the Tom's Hardware stuff now.
Seems he likes the PCI card that I posted above.

The card would not get that much use unless one of the kids were watching TV, I could watch something in my room, or record it to the hard drive.

Also something like this is what a lot of people are going to with these new PC setups I posted about last week that will replace the conventional home entertainment system.

Think about it...
A PC or shuttle box as they call the smaller ones with a TV tuner card, another high end graphics card for gaming and viewing the desktop, a DVD player/CD burner combo, 5.1 or better surround sound speakers, 32" wide or better plasma screen, and wireless keyboard and mouse.

The above setup will record your TV shows with the TV tuner card, let you watch TV, receive FM, watch DVD movies, and play games and compute, all from your living room.

It's an all in one system that will replace the present TV/home entertainment setup as we now know it.

Pick up the November issue of Maximum PC at the store, it's on the cover of it, and it will show you how easy it is to put one of these together.

The most expensive part of course is the screen.
A 32" plasma screen goes for roughly $4K.

A few PC companies are getting into this too, and I heard Gateway is one of them.