TV Tuner

I want to watch TV on my computer. I assume i need a TV tuner card but i have a few questions. I use a digital cable box. Would that be able to connect to a tuner via coaxial cable? I see tuners with the male end of the coaxial cable. I may kill two birds with one stone with this one. Are there any Geforce 7900 video cards with tv tuners? I'd like to upgrade. Also, my cable box has A/V inputs on it that may work like the coaxial cable out, but ive never tried it. So if the video card may need only A/V inputs instead of coaxial, but im not sure.

 

You assumed correctly.

My recommendation is to get a separate PCI TV tuner, instead of an All-In-Wonder type card (Graphics + TV) that way if you upgrade your video card, you wont have to repeatedly spend extra on the combo card.

Most TV tuners come with COAX input, which would work just fine coming in from a cable box. However, use through a cable box might change how the PVR would work-- that one you would have to figure out.

My vote goes to a Leadtek Winfast TV card. I have the Winfast TV200XP Deluxe, and I love it. If I were to upgrade, I would consider the ATi HDTV Wonder TV Tuner card, however that would require an HD cable box (I think).

 

thanks for the reply i think im going to get this one what do you think?

 

Happauge is known to make great TV tuner cards, so I'm sure you'd be happy with that one. My only concern is it seems a little pricey and I'm not sure what extra you're paying for... say, in comparison to this one.

I'm sure either choice would be a good card. I'm still tempted by the HDTV Wonder, as it would recieve free to air HDTV signals, which is good especially if you live in an Urban area/next to a major city.

The HDTV should work for analog TV in a normal situation, but apparently will not work for analog TV if you are running Windows Media Center Edition 2005.

 

I think I do like the Leadtek better. I see what your saying I dont see a huge difference in features. Plus the Leadtek has a FM tuner which is cool.

 

The Hauppage has a hardware MPEG2 encoder so it doesn't require CPU resources to record video. The Leadtek and ATI cards use software encoding, which does put a greater load on the CPU. It's something to consider if you plan on using it as a DVR, especially on an older system or while multitaksing.

 

Very much agreed there. I've had the same leadtek card go through 2 systems now. In my old Athlon XP 2800+ rig, the PVR function required that I not use the computer in order for the video to turn out smooth. Now in my Athlon64 3500+ rig, its much better at handling the software encoding, so I dont worry about it.

Another note, the FM tuner is cool-- but not too practical. Unless you have some kind of external antenna (other than the simple wires provided by leadtek), you wont get very good reception at all. I still like the card though.