I wanna buy a video card that will let me watch cable on my computer.

[Rockafella134]

I think it is Tv tuner card. I wanna buy one from newegg but I dont know which one is good.

[Terminat.]

Well, you've got 2 types - analogue and digital TV cards.

Analogue cards are typically cheaper, and you are guaranteed to always receive their transmission - however, you will only get the terrestrial channels, and the quality may vary significantly since it is analogue. (In UK, that's channels 1 to 5.)

Digital cards, on the other hand, not everyone can receive (if you can't receive cable in your area then you might not be able to use a digital card.) These are slightly more expensive, but are much more advanced. They allow you to:

Watch Freeview channels (about 30 digital channels) - for free, obviously.
Use an electronic programming schedule to select a program, put your pc into hibernation and then make your computer wake up automatically at a certain time to record your favourite program.
Pause live TV (Sky+ style)

The better ones come with a remote, meaning you can just pick up the control, point at the pc and press the power button - and your pc will go straight into TV-mode. You can then flick through channels remotely.

That's how it is in the UK, anyway.

Here's an example of a good one from Newegg (I think, since I don't live outside the UK, so the setup might be different): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814160017

It allows switch-on recording and live-tv pausing (again, I think - tv cards aren't my speciality.)

Hope this helps :)

[infinitevalence]

Im using an ATI All In Wonder 9600XT with Remote Wonder2 and its great, except my sound seems to just stop from time to time and i have to reboot for it to come back, but i dont think its ATI related as the same thing happens to winamp. But i watch TV on my desktop while writing, sufing, posting....

[>HyperlogiK<]

my first Hauppage WinTV pci card from ages ago was perfectly able to view cable as long as you have a decoder box. I don't know that any exist with a built in cable descrambler.

[Rockafella134]

Thanks you guys. What do you mean by decoder? To watch tv I use plug this cable. http://www.summitsource.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/coax_rg59_white_gold_connector.jpg
If I got one I can just plug the same cable in and watch tv?

[theMonster]

That's just a standard rg56 or rg59 coaxial cable. All tuner cards will use those. When they are saying decoder they're talking about a cable-box. If you need a box to change channels, it'll hook up to the card too so no worries.

[TheGreySpectre]

some cards though give lag, so depeneding on your card you might get some lag where the sound happens before the video. at least i do on my ATI TV wonder VE

[Audioaficionado]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116625

Kinda spendy but it works right the first time and it has lots of PVR features too.