Which Tuner is for me?

[mandarinez]

After moving into my dorm room, I found out that our school offers free basic cable. However, there is absolutely no room for a TV. After searching for a bit, I learned about TV tuners, and they sound like they are exactly what I need. However, I haven't the first clue which one I should buy, and whether or not the ones I'm looking at are any good.

I would prefer buying an external TV tuner if possible, as I would rather not do any computer surgery while in such a cramped space. Also, my monitor has DVI and HDMI inputs, but I don't believe it has VGA. However, I could always buy an adapter, so I guess thats a moot point...

Any suggestions on what I should buy? It'd be great to watch football in the dorms =]

 

[mrmez]

I've had a few tuners over the years, usually internal cards. Always did it on the cheap and was always let down with dodgy hardware and software.

Got an Elgato USB for the last Olympics. It cost a bit more than most other tuners, but ~3 years later it's still good. Reception from the tiny arial is great and the software (on Mac's anyway) doesn't crap out every 5 minutes.

It also has an IOS app where you can schedule shows to start or record, or even stream recorded shows to your IOS device.

They all seem to come with pretty average remotes, but lucky for me i never use them anyway.