TV Tuner card PCI or USB

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mushtac

157 posts

Master Geek

#22329 24-May-2008 10:59

What to buy a TV Tuner card for my Windows XP desktop computer, not sure if I should get an external USB/internal PCI.
Can anyone recommend a good TV Tuner card that is easy to install and has good software? Freeview & a remote would be a bonus.
I'm looking at spending around $130 but was surprised and confused by how many TV Tuner cards there are on the market.
Any advice is much appreciated.

eXDee

4032 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#132973 24-May-2008 11:48

I assume you mean DVB-T (Freeview | HD)?
WinTV-NOVA-T-500 for a PCI card - dual tuner and remote, no analogue
WinTV-HVR-2200 for a PCI-E card - dual tuner, no remote, supports analogue
OR
WinTV-NOVA-T-Stick for a USB stick, single tuner, no remote.
WinTV-NOVA-TD-Stick for a USB stick, dual tuner, no remote.

Dingbatt

6756 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#132976 24-May-2008 11:50

You may want to back up a step and consider what source (i.e. satellite, analogue terrestrial or digital terrestrial) you are going to try and display. As the availability of the source may steer you towards what kind of card/device you may need.

Do you need hardware MPEG2 decoding?

Does your computer have aerial connections anywhere near it for instance?

Be aware of the high level of hardware and additional software required to get digital terrestrial operating (multiple posts on these forums).

Also consider where-abouts on your motherboard a PCI tuner will go. Mine ended up in close proximity to the graphics card which caused RF interference on the tuner card (when I say close I mean only 10mm apart!).

I have no experience with USB tuners so can't comment directly, but they must get a big tick for ease of installation and transferability between platforms.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

mushtac

157 posts

Master Geek

#133083 25-May-2008 08:40

I like the idea of not having to install a PCI TV tuner even thou I am more than capable of doing it.
Would anyone like to comment on the pro/cons of a USB TV tuner?
At the moment there is only a coaxial cable but intend to replace TV aerial with a satellite dish at a later date.
Can anyone comment on the ease of installing and using WIN-TV/hauppauge software?
I would tend to go for a TV tuner card that has idiot proof software.
Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

Dingbatt

6756 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#133091 25-May-2008 11:22

Hauppauge drivers/WinTV simple to install. For the HVR-3000 it uses software MPEG2 decoding so analogue is only passable. Tuning of analogue in WinTV is simple, but satellite digital tuning must be over-ridden and done by manually inputting the satellite and LNB settings. So far digital terestrial doesn't work in WinTV, it will find the digital channels but can't display them. I am unsure whether HVR-4000 with PowerCinema bundled allows WinTV to work with DTT. I did find WinTV useful to experiment with when I first got the card(s) to get used to satellite parameters etc.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

argo

87 posts

Master Geek

#133102 25-May-2008 12:07

eXDee: I assume you mean DVB-T (Freeview | HD)?
WinTV-NOVA-T-500 for a PCI card - dual tuner and remote, no analogue
WinTV-HVR-2200 for a PCI-E card - dual tuner, no remote, supports analogue
OR
WinTV-NOVA-T-Stick for a USB stick, single tuner, no remote.
WinTV-NOVA-TD-Stick for a USB stick, dual tuner, no remote.

Just a FYI: the NOVA-T-Stick I bought from ComputerLounge came with a Hauppauge IR remote and s/w.
There is an IR receiver "port" on the stick itself, so of course the stick must be visible to the remote to work

My experiences with this tuner are here: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=83&TopicId=22349

Cheers.