TV tuners?

[pc_man_iac]

I have no idea, as to what makes a TV tuner, good, just wondering, if anyone here, has an awesome one, or could help me out a lil, willin to spend ~$150, but would like to spend less, if possible

[stlava]

It all depends on what you want to do with the tuner. Are you looking just to get TV on your computer or are you looking to build a media center, I'm currently running MythTV in my living room as a media center.

[pc_man_iac]

Watch TV, and record shows, in a fairly good quality, maybe one that can potentially turn my PC on/ff and record for me

[sushrukh]

Buy Hauppage WinTV-HVR-1600 at $129 :-http://registration.hauppauge.com/webstore/hardware2.asp?product=hvr1600

or this one :- Hauppage WinTV-HVR-950 at just $99 :- http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_hvr950.html


Many stores stock Hauppage products coz they provide very good quality.TV Tuner's capability mainly based on the Decoder chip they use like the Conexant or the Philips(mainly).Hauppage TV tuners are one of the best.

These online stores currently stock Hauppage products :- http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/buy/wtob_us.html

[westy87]

I havnt seen or used any other tv tuners but the one I am using is good enough for me. It supports 1080i, not sure about 1080p though. It is only a digital tuner, no analogue. Mine at the time was only $100Au and uses AverTV as the software. It has ability to turn computer off (can make it sleep, hibernate, log off, Exit program or turn off) It has record and timeshift. It can only record in mpeg2 format however, or you can make it imply just record the audio (probably for when listening to digital radio). It says it has wake up recording from power state S3 (is that just wen its in sleep mode?) It also has 3 rca inputs and S Video input for video and sound capture. I use the S Video to watch dvd's from my dvd home theater system (as i get better sound than compared to having dvd in computer and sending sound to home theater system.) And i use the rca for my playstation 1 lorfl.

Hmm what else. Oh yeh recording from video input devices gives you a whole rage of formats to record it as such as dvd, wmv etc.

And best of all the infra red reciever plugs into the back of the sound card so it doesnt use up a usb slot like some do.

Biggest downside is that if you try changing channels when the reception is really poor then sometimes it freezes and u have to end the process and restart program. Hope this helps. Might also help clarify what you really want it to do for the price etc

[Vespro56]

I did use an HAUPAGE TV Tuner but was not very impressed with it. I returned it. Too many issues with the software, and It will not play DIGITAL CABLE but only digital signal over the air. However I was reading about a new TV Tuner from ATI for about $149.00 for which all PC Editor are giving great reviews. The only problem ??? It is not available. So what's the fuss??