Help Buying a Tv Tuner card

[pip_75]

What is a good TV tuner card for my computer I want to be able to use my computer to watch tv in my dorm room at college

 

[Nitro350Z]

Hauppauge has some good cards, used a few of them over the years and they are very good

Hope this Helps

 

[pip_75]

I need a card that will work with XP pro

 

[tyr86]

Hauppauge and ATI. ATI makes stand alone tuners for I don't remember how much, and they obviously have their All-in-Wonder line which is very good. Check into getting one of those...

I am debating on getting an AIW for my next AGP card... (I still have a 9800PRO)

 

[itneal2277]

The ATI TV Wonder Elite is a great card but is analog only. If you want to pick up analog and digital signals try the HD Wonder by ATI. Currently both cards can be found on NewEgg. If you’re not in dire need to upgrade I suggest waiting. ATI just released the Theater 650 Pro and the card featuring it should be out soon. It supports both analog and digital signals and is suppose to have better quality.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

I want to be able to use my computer to watch tv in my dorm room at college

He's a college student and probably has a small budget (I know what its like). I'd look into a Hauppauge. I think I've seen versions that'll work with XP and not just MCE. I've used the ATI TV Wonder Pro and the TV Wonder USB (not the 2.0) and both were pretty horrible. The picture wasn't too bad but the software didn't want to work right. Also, most of the video picture quality settings are only availible if you have an ATI card.
I'd like to get a new card myself, but I've basically given up at this point.

-mcg

 

[tach]

can someone help me out as well?

i would like to know what would be a good tv tuner that would let me record shows to my harddrive, would the tuner come with the software for this. i would aslo like to know if any could display and record HD content from the HD channels i have with brighthouse. i heard something that all current tv tuners have this firmware that stops it from doing so on certain broadcast as of JULY of 05

 

[pip_75]

What is a good Hauppauge card to get?

Here is my computer

XP Pro
AMD FX2 4200 Dual core
Asus A8N SLI-Premium
1GB OCZ Performance series memory
300 GB Maxtor SATA 150
320 GB WD Sata 3.0
Viewsonic VX922 19" monitor
EVGA Geforce 7800GTX 256MB
Thermaltake Armor Computer Case

 

[MrCommunistGen]

I really don't know anything about Hauppauge cards first hand. I just went to Pricegrabber.com and searched for "Hauppauge". I then looked up each of the models in my price range in Google to find reviews (from reputable sources). Its been quite a while since I did the reasearch so I can't really help you much more. My advice however is to not get the cheapest model if the next model up isn't that much more expensive. I don't remember specifically why... I might have read something...

-mcg

 

[Vinny]

First and foremost, nearly any TV tuner will look like crap. Yes, some look better than others but to date I have yet to see one that reproduces picture quality as good as a regular old TV. The higher resolutions of computer monitors reproduce some horrible quality. And avoid the All-In-Wonder series altogether. It's a rip off, a sub par graphics card and a sub par tuner card in one overpriced package. The AiW series was made to save space more than anything.

Whoever said wait for ATI's new 650 chip is right. It supposedly a huge leap in quality...

With that out of the way, I too have been in search for a new TV tuner. I'd love to reduce the clutter of my room by using my LCD for watching TV and playing games- at sacrificed quality.

I search high and low and so far, this seems like the best bang for the buck.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116606

I'm just waiting to see if ATI 650 chip does any better before I buy.

 

[ellover009]

The new ati tv turner the 650 chip it's actually named TV WONDER ELITE if you search for it anywhere and in the specs its the 650 chip. Just telling you because if you type 650 you won't find much in online stores. I have the 550 I bought it about a year ago, really happy with it, kinda sucks that this one is a big upgrade, I think some parts might shift to pci express slots in future since more and more motherboard makers are including less normal pci slots some even have only 2. There is actually an pci express version of the 550 supossively runs same. Good luck man.

 

[itneal2277]

The new ati tv turner the 650 chip it's actually named TV WONDER ELITE if you search for it anywhere and in the specs its the 650 chip.

I don't think so. I currently own a TV Wonder Elite and it is based on the 550 chip. Perhaps the new cards use, or are going to use the 650 chip, but I havent heard any thing of this. The 650 chip is also going to support digital signals which I believe the TV Wonder Elite does not. I am looking forward to getting a card that uses the 650 chip though.