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Looking for graphics + tuner

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Cant.Touch.This

Cant.Touch.This

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Joined
May 20, 2007
Location
New York
I was wondering if this Radeon HD 3650 All-in-Wonder allows me to watch television on the computer. I receive free over-the-air broadcast analog and current use a Zenith DTV converter for my television (if that last part matters). Would installation be just plugging the antenna's coaxial to the back of the card and with the card's software configure it to playback the same shows?

Is it better to buy the graphics and tuner separate? I could barely find any that had them all in one - there were only two I found on Newegg. If it is, please post suggestions - this isn't exactly a HTPC build but here are the parts so far:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R
Intel C2D E7300
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 4GB (2 x 2GB)

Thanks for helping me on this.
 
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yes it does.

but often it is better to get it seperate, this way if you want a better video card, you dont have to buy a tuner and a card

ATI is the only one who make good all-in one cards and always had, but the way of keeping them seperate is much better for future, also if say the TV tuner dies, you would have to replace the whole thing...
 
Mr.Guvernment said:
yes it does.

but often it is better to get it seperate, this way if you want a better video card, you dont have to buy a tuner and a card

ATI is the only one who make good all-in one cards and always had, but the way of keeping them seperate is much better for future, also if say the TV tuner dies, you would have to replace the whole thing...
Click to expand...

I see your point - I had originally intended to buy a 8600GT but unsure of which TV tuners out there were reputable, the video quality output, things like that. This build is expected to last around 5+ years should this card be good for the long run? How often do TV tuners update? It's never going to see any gaming, maybe if the kids install something to play but other than that no gaming.
 
ATI is okay
Happauge has bad driver support

AverMedia is well praised, especially the PCIe 1x series.
 
As an ex-All in Wonder owner. As the card aged. I felt I had to hold on to the card. Just for the tuner onboard the card.
Happauge is one of the better cards IMO. Since there is Linux support also. It is hard to know what whims you might fancy in the next 5 years. Might as well go with a brand that does not change much through the years and supports more than one or two operating systems. i.e - XP/Vista. The models from 4 years ago are good enough for todays usage. Unless you want HD stuff. If the card is functional, you can get away with a used one easy.

That is the only thing that makes a difference in what card to pick near as I can tell. My old AIW, is useless for most anything now. I should of thought ahead on that. Now that AGP is gone and PCI-e is the thing to look at with HD support.
 
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i use Happauge never had a issue with them

you just need to know which drivers you need

a HVR internal supports both analog & digital
 
Grayfox said:
a HVR internal supports both analog & digital
Click to expand...

The hybrid cards do have disadvantages. Not to bad though. The limit on the hybrid cards versus combo cards. Is that the hybrid will only tune either analog or digital at a time. No tuning both at once. The combo cards can do both analog and digital at the same time.
 
Enablingwolf said:
The hybrid cards do have disadvantages. Not to bad though. The limit on the hybrid cards versus combo cards. Is that the hybrid will only tune either analog or digital at a time. No tuning both at once. The combo cards can do both analog and digital at the same time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. The limitations I could deal with but is there a price difference between these usually? Or relatively the same price range?

With the switch to [all] digital broadcast on Feb. 19th (?) I think I'll check out cards that tune into digital only but I heard some stations will broadcast analog even after the mandate.

This build was intended for someone else originally but since I found out that it wasn't a TV tuner that they needed I wanted to continue the thread for my own knowledge... maybe I'll build my own HTPC one day :p.
 
The price between a hybrid and combo is there. If you are going to record/watch one band at a time. It is easier and cheaper to get the hybrid. The combo allows you to watch and record two programs at the same time. Which adds about 40 or so clams to the price. Depending on the features of the card.

Expect to shell out about a bill for an ok card with the features that might suite you for that time frame.
Couple things I would be looking for. QAM tuning and PCI-e. Try and avoid the cards that are tied to one OS. Like the Windows Media Center bundles. Since if for some reason you get a boner for MythTV. Your going to be boned. Usually the ones that support Linux also seem to be ok value cards. Hardware encoding is a no brainer and is a MUST> What level are you willing to pay for though. There is some nifty $70 cards though in Hybrid PCI-e

That should help narrow down the field for you by a large margin. There is other things you might to want to look at. Narrowing the selection down in a crowded field sure helps.

Once you do a tuner. You find they are nifty little addons. Even a crappy old one is fun to have use of.
 
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I'll be sure to take note of this for future interest in buying my own TV tuner - thanks for all your input Enablingwolf :).
 
Happauge, the issue i have found is you may buy their card, and say windows 7 comes out tomorrow, they decide not to make drivers for your card and thats it, done, no more support, or their drivers are very sloooooooooooooooow to be released.


When i was doing research for a card, this one got alot of praise!

AVerMedia AVerTV Bravo Hybrid PCI-E H788 TV Tuner PCIe x1 Card MTVBHPCIR, w/ TV Antenna, S-Video, Composite, Audio L/R, FM Radio
http://www.directron.com/mtvbhpcir.html
 
I am prob going to get one myself, as said, i spent well over 4-5 hours one night looking at tv tuner cards, happauge got crap for their quick drop of driver support, ATI got the usual bashing of being cheap and crappy image quality, but Avermedia seems to be one of the newer guys around, kind of, who has everything that is good.
 
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