PCI TV Tuner card

Hey guys, I just purchased a Diamond ATI TV wonder HD 650 dual tuner card. The card I bought is PCI not PCI Express. I would have rather bought the PCI Express card for the same price but I don't have another PCI Express slot on my motherboard. The only one I have is currently being used by my graphics card. I'm honestly not that happy with the quality of the picture. My question is, Is there a big difference in picture quality between PCI express and PCI if all other things are equal? If there is, then I would be willing to take this card back and buy a new graphics and tv tuner combo PCI express card to get the better quality picture. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

please can you provide a link to the specific card you bought?

Burrell

 

http://www.diamondmm.com/product_print.php?product=TVW650PCIV

 

sorry, im not sure enough to answer again, as i could be wrong and be responsible for you buying a card you dont need!

Burrell

 

No. There is NO difference in "quality" between PCI, AGP, or PCIe - assuming all other things equal.

That does not mean all TV tuner cards are equal, however. It just means the quality will depend on the quality of the parts, design, and manufacturing, not on the interface used. You could expect Diamond's top of the line card to perform better than its entry level card, for example.

Now about that particular card, I am a bit confused over the specifications. It says it has USB support. I don't see that, even on the enlarged image though it could be internal. Or as noted there, the images shown may vary from actual product (I hate when they do that - ).

My biggest concern is the outputs. I assume that round connector connects to a proprietary cable harness that has other connectors. To get the best display, it needs to be digital via DVI or HDMI. Is that what you are using?

Or, if that is a S-Video connector, then that would likely be your problem as S-Video is analog and has limited resolution support. If it converts to component, that is better, but still analog.

 

Thanks so much for responding Digerati. You did answer my question about, is there a difference in picture quality between pci and pci express? I thought maybe there might be since pci express is alot faster than pci. As far as the output connectors go. I have a separate graphics card that has a dvi hookup that I use. My tv tuner card is only a tv tuner card and not a grahics card. I installed it in my computer, hooked the coax cable to it, installed my drivers and it works perfectly with windows 7 media center so that I can record or watch live tv on my computer. My only problem is, the picture quality isn't as good as I had hoped. That's what got me to wondering if I should have bought a pci express tv tuner card. Thank you so much for your help.