TV Card

[mfcphil]

Already had my pc built and delivered, but cant help wondering why I never bothered getting a TV tuner card.....but then is it worth getting one....any software with them?? any free chanels to watch??

Help me decide :turned:


Also if it came to it could I just buy one here and install it easily myself?

 

[Gorman]

Also if it came to it could I just buy one here and install it easily myself?

Yes you could, your warranty is only affected if installing the card damages anything.

Generally speaking you will only get free view channels on a TV card, although that's quite a few.

Personally i am not a huge fan of them, the main reason being they are very dependent on a strong signal, a very strong signal.

They usually come with software to view the channels, but the best bet is to use something like Windows Media Centre.

 

[vanthus]

This depends on the card you get,you can get one like I've got that connects to a satellite dish which gives me freesat, or you can get one that connects to tv aerial that will give you freeview.there will be software with the card probably hauppage.but windows media centre does the job.It's easily installed & as far as I know pcs will supply to an existing customer.

 

[mfcphil]

I've not seen anywhere here that allows you to buy single item....would I need to phone and ask?

 

[pengipete]

Most TV cards are DVB - in UK terms, they receive all Freeview channels. You're looking at dozens of channels and even if you exclude the awful shopping chabels, you actually get a lot of good stuff. Depending on the card you buy, you will usually get one or two tuners - two is ideal as it lets you watch ine channel whilst recording another or record two channels at the same time. You can also buy cards that record Freesat - similar to Freeview but requires a satellite dish. The channel line-up is slightly different from Freeview.

Two things to watch. As Gorman says, reception can be a problem but that assumes that you use an indoor antenna - if you connect to your normal ariel you will get exactly the same signal quality as you do on your TV. The other thing to watch out for is that TV cards decode the signal AND process it. Part of that includes compressing the data before sending it to the PC and monitor. The cheapo USB receivers you see on ebay do not give the same quality of picture as a decent internal card - they use a much lower bitrate - so if you have the choice, get an internal card.

I've used internal cards with Media Centre in XP, Vista and W7 on my desktops and laptops and for my money, it's one of the best add-ons you can get for a PC. In fact, if there's anything on TV that I want to keep - I record it on the PC rather than Sky or BT Vision.

Regarding software... they all come with some software but Windows Media Centre is by far the best in every respect (I never thought I'd say something that nice about Windows) Aswell as being fast and easy to use, it gives you a ton of "extras" that many people never even see and the EPG is better than anything I've seen including on regular TVs and the likes of Sky. On that score, try to get a TV card that has a standard Windows remote control - it'll make life easier. One other point, Windows 7's media center is the first verion to support teletext in the UK- a bit late in the day but useful for some people.

Even if you don't want to watch a lot of TV on your PC, you can always have Media Centre running in a window on your desktop so you can still watch telly whilst doing other things.

 

[mfcphil]

Pengipete what a fantastic answer.....right up to the point where I was looking for your recomendation on which maker of card (arghhh) what type do you suggest buying?

 

[vanthus]

For what it's worth I find hauppauge very good I use HAUPPAUGE HI-DEF SATELITTE DVB-S2 TV RECIEVER (WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2) which connects to satellite dish & one on my old pc which does satellite & terrestial,they are both PCI.If you just want to connect to tv aerial a two tuner would be ideal for you,I sit & watch it sometimes while browsing the net,you can shrink the screen to suit yourself.

 

[mfcphil]

Thanks Vanthus....Think I will go down the two tuner route, will probably get an indoor digital ariel

 

[mfcphil]

What about this?????

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_hvr2200mckit.html

 

[pengipete]

Pengipete what a fantastic answer.....right up to the point where I was looking for your recomendation on which maker of card (arghhh) what type do you suggest buying?

Sorry old bean. My current card is an Hauppauge (that's pronounced hop-hog, incidentally) but it is no longer produced so that wouldn't help (it is still supported - a sign of a good brand). I wouldn't recommend any particular brand or model as I've only used a couple of them. I doubt there's that much to chose between any card from the major players - Hauppage, K-World, Black Gold and Pinnacle spring to mind - so I'd suggest looking at features such as the number and type of tuners and then checking reviews and the manufacturer's website to assess their support - and check for newer models.

In practice, many of the internal cards have been around for years without any major revisions - mainly because it's not exactly a rapidly changing tech - just a TV tuner or two and the connection to the PC so driver updates are all that's needed. Having said that, the most obvious development in recent years is digital TV (Freeview) and many hybrid cards offer both digital and analogue tuners. With analog TV disappearing over the next few months, an all-digital card would seem to be the obvious choice but an analogue tuner has it's uses - in particular, it lets you record from any RF signal - including VCRs - so that may be worth considering if you can't find or afford a card with any other suitable input.

A couple of tips.

You'll have a choice of PCI or PCIe. PCI slots are becoming very rare and chances are that your TV card will outlive your current PC so PCIe may be a better choice.

Having said that USB tuners can be relatively poor, I was only talking about the cheapo ones on ebay. If you have a laptop as well as a desktop PC, a USB tuner may be worth considering as you could take it with you - on holiday, for example.

Trying to get a decent signal from an indoor aeriel - especially the silly little things that come with many PC cards/USB tuners - but the once your local transmitter goes fully digital the signal strength will increase - in some cases it may be ten times stonger so don't discount an indoor aeriel entirely.

Ebay usually has lots of second-hand TV cards and prices can be very good. It's definitely worth considering a used card - just check the manufacturer's website for drivers as many sellers have no idea about such things and you may find a card sold as "works with XP" actually works perfectly with other versions of Windows - including 64 bit versions.

Not all TV cards actually work with Windows Media Centre or don't work properly with all features. If there's no information immediately available, check the manufacturer's website or check with Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx (that's the W7 section - you can find Vista or XPwith a few clicks)

Recorded TV can use a lot of hard-drive space and the live-pause/rewind feature involves a lot of read/writes over the same area so space, transfer rates and fragmentation can be a problem. I'd recommend a separate partition or better still, a separate drive just for TV and configure WMC to use that.

Finally, HD is "the next big thing" in terrestial TV so if you want something relatively future-proof, get a card that supports it and allow room for the larer file sizes.

 

[mfcphil]

forgive the SILLY question how to you link the pc card from the pc monitor through a tv ariel?

 

[vanthus]

forgive the SILLY question how to you link the pc card from the pc monitor through a tv ariel?

You dont have to link anything,just install the pci card & buy an amplified aerial if you dont want go to all the trouble of connecting it to your existing tv aeriial & you'll be good to go,unless you have a very poor signal,forget all the gobbledegook.

 

[mfcphil]

Thanks Vanthus!

 

[mfcphil]

So I got a WinTV t-500 TV card......only thing now is which digital ariel to get.

I have one already but Media Centre picks up no signal and no chanels

What do you use????

 

[vanthus]

1 have mine connected to loft aeriel,If your using indoor aerial I would try an amplified one,If still no signal then you will probably need to go along the same lines as me.

 

[mfcphil]

So I got a new Digital TV ariel and I'm all up and running.....Any pointers to where/who/what to use for all the best channels....obviously I'm already using Windows Media Centre.

But where to get all the internet chanels