Looking for a PC HDTV tuner and others to replace and upgrade my aging ATI Radeon 9800 AIW card.

[ANTant]

Hello,

I am currently using an ATI Radeon 9800 AIW for workstation, gaming, and recording/watching TV shows from
rabbit ear antennae (do not subscribe to cable and satellite). I would like to replace this video card and its
TV tuner with a NVIDIA card and a HDTV tuner card. The reasons for this: 1) newer games requiring more video
power and 2) ATI's software is buggy, especially with MMC and drivers (digital audio now which is bad for
consoles and others).

The hard parts are finding out which HDTV tuner card and software replacement to get. Also, I assume I can
retrieve HDTV feeds over antennae (will have to replace that too I think) from Web sites I looked at. I also
watch my TV shows via the video card's video out to a 30" TV (via a VCR). Also, I would need to replace the
MultiMedia Center (ATI's software for recording, watching TV, etc.).

Any suggestions and comments on my upgrade would be helpful. You can see my current system setup at
http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt (primary and gaming box).

I am new to this stuff. Thank you in advance.
--
"Is this stuff any good for ants?" "No, it kills them." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

 

[Wes Newell]

Hello,

I am currently using an ATI Radeon 9800 AIW for workstation, gaming, and
recording/watching TV shows from rabbit ear antennae (do not subscribe to
cable and satellite). I would like to replace this video card and its TV
tuner with a NVIDIA card and a HDTV tuner card. The reasons for this: 1)
newer games requiring more video power and 2) ATI's software is buggy,
especially with MMC and drivers (digital audio now which is bad for
consoles and others).

The hard parts are finding out which HDTV tuner card and software
replacement to get. Also, I assume I can retrieve HDTV feeds over antennae
(will have to replace that too I think) from Web sites I looked at. I also
watch my TV shows via the video card's video out to a 30" TV (via a VCR).
Also, I would need to replace the MultiMedia Center (ATI's software for
recording, watching TV, etc.).

Any suggestions and comments on my upgrade would be helpful. You can see
my current system setup at
http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt (primary and
gaming box).

I am new to this stuff. Thank you in advance.

Not near as new as me, but I've been researching HDTV tuner cards for a
few days now. I'm going to get the Fusion HDTV5 Gold Plus for $150. It's
got the latest HDTV tuner that's supposed to give much better reception,
etc. than previous generation of tuners. But I'm going to go at this under
Linux. I see you're using WinXP for your media machine. Any, except the
pcHDTV card (Linux only) should work with WXP. Why not keep the A/W card
you have and then just add the hdtv tuner card? Watch one, record another
or 2 recordings at the same time. I'm thinking of 4 tuners in one box to
replace my other recorders (Tivo, DRS7000N, VCR) eventually.

 

[ANTant]

Not near as new as me, but I've been researching HDTV tuner cards for a
few days now. I'm going to get the Fusion HDTV5 Gold Plus for $150. It's
got the latest HDTV tuner that's supposed to give much better reception,
etc. than previous generation of tuners. But I'm going to go at this under
Linux. I see you're using WinXP for your media machine. Any, except the
pcHDTV card (Linux only) should work with WXP. Why not keep the A/W card
you have and then just add the hdtv tuner card? Watch one, record another
or 2 recordings at the same time. I'm thinking of 4 tuners in one box to
replace my other recorders (Tivo, DRS7000N, VCR) eventually.

The reason for dropping ATI card is because of games. Newer games do not
perform well with this old ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. Also, the drivers and
softwares are buggy on my system.
--
"Is this stuff any good for ants?" "No, it kills them." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )