which TV card to buy?

[BigRed]

well since i got my lazy bum ass up and got a job im beefing up my computer a lot lateley, hehe. and i was thinking about getting myself a tv card next paycheck so i can put my shiny new 19" moitor to good use :)
the last TV card i used was an isa one way back in the day of the first generation pentium, hehe. so im a bit behind on what options there are for TV cards
any sugguestions? and give me some linkage if you can :)

[Intraveinous]

The Happauge (Spelling???) TV Cards are decent. You can usually find them on Pricewatch (www.pricewatch.com) by searching for 'WinTV' as that's the branding if I remember correctly. Also, the ATI All In Wonders have a decent TV Tuner as well... I think there was an All in Wonder Radeon (though it was only a 16mb) for 50 bucks in the CompUSSR err... CompUSA ad last weekend after rebates...
Anyway, hope this helps..
Peace
John

[It_The_Cow]

I recommend an AIW. I have an Hauppauge and its somewhat ok. It may not be the same for you, but there are lines near the top of the screen, and there is no free Auto Recording program. Only a 10 day trial version. I belive the AIW does

[BigRed]

i dont really want an all in wonder, i just want a seperate pci tv card. would the atis tv wonder be a good choice? or what other cards would u reccomend that have good software?

[Zuck Gou :)]

Originally posted by BigRed
i dont really want an all in wonder, i just want a seperate pci tv card. would the atis tv wonder be a good choice? or what other cards would u reccomend that have good software?

I got an ATI TV-wonder and it works fine for the price I paid. The quality can get semi-grainy at times, but still very usable.

[GE]

Look for the hauppage TV primo. It costs around £55 (say... $63) and has all you need. TV, radio, inputs and a Remote control. These things have small IR sensors you plug in the back, allowing you to sit back and watch the TV without havin to keep clicking on things, etc. The remote is also customisable and allows you to control other programs with it such as winamp...

good stuff..... buy one!

[SP]

I second the recommendation of Hauppauge products. One of the great things about the hauppauge cards is they have good working drivers for all versions of windows. That includes windows 2000 which is where alot of Tv tuner cards used to fall short in the driver department. The hauppauge cards may not come with alot of fancy gimmick type software, but at least you get a good working stable card. Also, there are freeware programs out there that will fill your needs and work with them. One program you'll probably be interested in for TV viewing is Dscaler. Dscaler deinterlaces the image and produces better image quality. It only works with cards based on the Bt8x8 chipsets and the all in wonder cards are not based on those chips. The TV wonder PCI cards are based on this chip just like the PCI Hauppauge cards but I've heard the drivers for them are not so good especially with windows 2000.

I recommend the PCI cards as the Usb devices aren't usually that great because of the limited bandwidth of the usb interface. The model 401 seen here (http://www.hauppauge.com/html/products.htm) is the best value.

Here is some free software you might find of use with your Wintv PCI card.

Dscaler (http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/)
virtualdub (http://www.virtualdub.org/index)
freevcr (http://www.freevcr.fr.st/index-en.html)
snapstream (www.snapstream.com)

Also, you should check out the arstechnica A/V forum FAQ. There is alot there about TV tuner cards and video capture and such. Be sure and check this out as there is some good information available there.


Ars A/V FAQ (http://faq.arstechnica.com/?s=1)