How can I watch tv and use my pc at the same time?

[kat]

Hi
I recently bought a Samsung LCD tv/monitor and chucked my tv out.
While it's great to be able to watch the tv without turning the pc on,
and great to only have one screen, there are times when I want to
watch tv and use the pc! At the moment I just change the input source
to flick between tv and pc. Is there anyway I can use both at once and
somehow split the screen? I don't really want to buy a tv card as my
pc is a small format shuttle and there's not much room left!
Any advice or ideas greatly appreciated,
kat

 

[Noozer]

Hi
I recently bought a Samsung LCD tv/monitor and chucked my tv out.
While it's great to be able to watch the tv without turning the pc on,
and great to only have one screen, there are times when I want to
watch tv and use the pc! At the moment I just change the input source
to flick between tv and pc. Is there anyway I can use both at once and
somehow split the screen? I don't really want to buy a tv card as my
pc is a small format shuttle and there's not much room left!
Any advice or ideas greatly appreciated,

Only if your TV has Picture in Picture

 

[theyak]

Only if your TV has Picture in Picture

Or you could stick a 25 dollar tv card in there and watch it in from
within windows...

 

[John]

Or you could stick a 25 dollar tv card in there and watch it in from
within windows...

Yeah all of them do that. There have been some sales on the cheap WIN
To Go and other brands recently. Everyone seems to be getting the
Hauppauge 150 it was on sale for 69 at Compusa last week but thats
over. You can get it on Amazon the 150mce version for 66-73 free
shipping do a search but it doesnt come with any software.

Actually unless you want to have real time rewind / PVR features then
you dont really need hardware encoding which the 150 has and you can
get almost any cheap card. I have an old pinnacle and it works fine.
About a year or so ago there were lots of sales on the cheap TV cards
at Compusa the non-stereo versions were selling almost every other
week for $5-15 after rebate. Havent seen such deals at the big
retailers since then. I bought one of them and they work fine but no
stereo sound though.

If you do a search online you can find various mass manufacturers
offering generic TV cards with stereo - ASUS , MSI I think had one etc
and there was a Kworld or something for $35 or so recently. Check
Newegg.com, etc. Those come with software but theres lots of 3rd party
software - WINDVR, Power VCR etc.

 

[kat]

Thank you all very much for your answers and suggestions. I'll start
looking into a cheap tv card then.
Thanks again,
Kat

 

[DaveW]

Sorry, but no can do.