Asus 9600 XT - Video In or Tuner?

[leyshon]

I have a quick question which seems to ellude me totally.

Is the Asus 9600 XT JUST video in, or does it actually tune chanells as well?

If not, what sort of tuner would be needed?

This isn't made clear in any write up ive seen, or on Asus' own website.

 

[stackom]

I have the same dilemma - just bought it and went throuh all the docs. No success...

 

[Vimp]

I was looking into this a while back myself. I was under the imppression that almost all cards now a days came with a tuner. However I was wrong. What I thought was a tuner was just the ability to view your computer on the tv. So far theres only a few cards that have a tuner. For ATi type cards the only ones with a tuner are the ones that have the "All In Wonder" in there name, or AIW. For NVidia cards its not as easy to determine though. Among the FX line of cards there is one version of the FX5200 class that has a tuner and one among the FX5600 class. I believe the FX5200 card with a tuner has the word "magic" in its name. For the 5600 with a tuner, the only company I know making it is Chaintech and it has "PersonalCinema" in its name. In the Geforce4 series I believe ones with a tuner also use the word "magic" in their name.

Sorry a correction. The FX5200 with a tuner is called "Home Theater" made by Asus. Others may also make it but I dont know if they use the same name. However the best I think is the ATI AIW cards if you want a tuner and graphics card other wise you can buy a seperate tuner card from various companies including ATI, Asus, MSI and many others.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Vimp on 01/24/04 03:15 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

You have Video In. You can use a cable box or VCR as a tuner.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[leyshon]

The problem is that Asus' own advertising is a bit mis-leading as well. With the supplied DVCR software (http://uk.asus.com/products/vga/digitalvcr.htm) it claims "Scheduled TV recording" & "Preview your favorite channels". But no mention of the fact that card itself has NO tuner abilties (unless we are all missing something).

Im usually a big fan of Asus', but this is one time the advertising can be very mis-leading.

 

[Vimp]

Maybe it isn't as missleading as you think. If what Crashman says is true, and you really can just hook your cable box or vcr upto your videocard's video-in connector in order to get tv on your computer, then those "Scheduled TV recording" & "Preview your favorite channels" features can actually be used despite not having a tuner right in your computer.