TV Tuner Card Info

[Stacey]

I don't know anything about watching TV on my PC but I've heard it is
possible. I have digital cable and wonder if getting a tuner card for
my PC would work for watching the channels provided by my digital
cable provider.

As someone else pointed out leadtek makes a nice card for under $50. I saw
where Haughpauge is making an HDTV tuner card now? No idea how much they
are.

 

[Bob]

I don't know anything about watching TV on my PC but I've heard it is
possible. I have digital cable and wonder if getting a tuner card for
my PC would work for watching the channels provided by my digital
cable provider.

I'm not too concerned about recording altough it would be nice. If I
can get good reliable reception I would love it. Is this possible? I
have a 2.6 ghz processor with 1.25 gigs of RAM and an 80 gig HD. I
can use either Windows XP home edition or Linux, whichever is better
for the task.

If it is possible, what is a decent card to buy? I can spend up to a
couple hundred, and possibly a little more. Thanks for all replies.

Bob

 

[Alan Wright]

I don't know anything about watching TV on my PC but I've heard it is
possible. I have digital cable and wonder if getting a tuner card for
my PC would work for watching the channels provided by my digital
cable provider.

I'm not too concerned about recording altough it would be nice. If I
can get good reliable reception I would love it. Is this possible? I
have a 2.6 ghz processor with 1.25 gigs of RAM and an 80 gig HD. I
can use either Windows XP home edition or Linux, whichever is better
for the task.

If it is possible, what is a decent card to buy? I can spend up to a
couple hundred, and possibly a little more. Thanks for all replies.

Bob

Couple hundred!!!??? Leadtek makes a nice full featured card for $30.
It can't decode the digital stuff, but you can watch TV via the output of
your digital box using a video or RF connection. The Leadtek card takes
video in, RF in, and FM in. The included WinPVR software gives you
TV in a window and allows recording live or via timers as well as other
PVR features.

Alan

 

[BalloonKnot]

Couple hundred!!!??? Leadtek makes a nice full featured card for $30.
It can't decode the digital stuff, but you can watch TV via the
output of your digital box using a video or RF connection. The
Leadtek card takes video in, RF in, and FM in. The included WinPVR
software gives you
TV in a window and allows recording live or via timers as well as
other PVR features.

Alan

Where can you get the card for under $30?? I did a search, and see for
about ~$55

Thanks.....

 

[kony]

Where can you get the card for under $30?? I did a search, and see for
about ~$55

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-122-132R&type=Refurbish

They're not guaranteed to come with all accessories, though I and others
have reported receiving the complete retail package... YMMV.

 

[BalloonKnot]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-122-132R&type=Refurbish

They're not guaranteed to come with all accessories, though I and
others have reported receiving the complete retail package... YMMV.

Thanks....I have been trying to get an old STB card to work under winXp
with no luck. I can get it to work in Win2k though.

I may just get a Lite-on DVD burner while I'm at it.

Thanks again....

 

[Bob]

As someone else pointed out leadtek makes a nice card for under $50. I saw
where Haughpauge is making an HDTV tuner card now? No idea how much they
are.

That's great! I threw out the dollar figure not knowing what those
things cost but if it's under $50 it's surely worth a try. I'll have
to get one and see what kind of quality I can get and maybe if I can
also get the connector for digital. Thanks much for the information.

Bob

 

[ECM]

I don't know anything about watching TV on my PC but I've heard it is
possible. I have digital cable and wonder if getting a tuner card for
my PC would work for watching the channels provided by my digital
cable provider.

I'm not too concerned about recording altough it would be nice. If I
can get good reliable reception I would love it. Is this possible? I
have a 2.6 ghz processor with 1.25 gigs of RAM and an 80 gig HD. I
can use either Windows XP home edition or Linux, whichever is better
for the task.

If it is possible, what is a decent card to buy? I can spend up to a
couple hundred, and possibly a little more. Thanks for all replies.

Bob

You'd better check with your cable provider before you run out and buy
a card - DIGITAL cable requires a decoder box (that's always
proprietary) to work..... I guess you could run a cable from the
digital decoder box to the computer's card - but you'd still have to
change channels on the decoder box, not the computer, and you'd only
be able to record whatever channel the box is putting out. I seem to
recall that you can still get the analog cable signal for the basic 12
channels if you don't usee the decoder, but that may have just been my
area.

I had digital cable and I gave it up. IMHO, it's the BIGGEST RIPOFF
ever devised - and it ISN"T, contrary to Comcast's advertising, more
reliable, clearer, or easier to use than satellite (which I also had
in the past). I have old fashioned analog cable now - I pay $12/mo for
exactly the same channels I used to pay $34 for..... and it doesn't go
out 2-3 times a week like digital did.

Good luck.
ECM