USB TV Tuner

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networkn

Networkn
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#71669 15-Nov-2010 08:12

Does such a thing exist under $120 that will allow me to watch normal TV (1,2,3 etc) and Freeview HD? Do they take the same connector?

Can someone recommend one?

Needs to work with Windows 7 and have an intuitive interface.

richms

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#404722 15-Nov-2010 09:17

There are many many really cheap digital tuners available, people are importing them and selling them on trademe at dollar reserve so you might get lucky there, otherwise ebay or deal extreme are sure fire cheap prices but long time to get - particularly at this time of year.

If by "normal TV" you mean analog, then you are very limited in choice since there is much more hardware needed to recieve analog tv so most dont bother, there are some hybrid tuners, but other than juice and the horseracing there is nothing on analog worth getting, and I can live without juice and dont care about horse racing

Richard rich.ms

networkn

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#404724 15-Nov-2010 09:20

I am just not sure what type of aerial this lady has.

richms

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#404727 15-Nov-2010 09:30

Well now is the time to check it out, since analog is useless and gone soon. It looks really bad with the realtime encodes that analog tuners to to PVR it, and with the partial letterboxing and cropping they do you are so often missing content too (except on C4 who like to ruin it for digital viewers with massive blackbars everywhere inorder to make it 4:3 safe)

I would just get the $12 digital tuner, and if there is no digital signal worry about it then, since most places have a UHF antenna from the old days of sky. The prettymuch 20 year old antenna at mums place fired right back up when I plugged the powersupply for the masthead amp back in after it had been idle since sky satillite started up prettymuch.

Richard rich.ms

khull

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#404778 15-Nov-2010 11:14

I have an Elgato EyeTV or you can get a WinTV-HVR-900 which is the same hardware.

I would argue that Windows 7 does not have an intuitive interface to begin with and will back up this statement with an example:

[Explaining how to protect/backup your PC]
- Open up Control Panel and list all possible icons
- Try explaining to your family members and friends who are not IT savvy why there are 3 places to backup/restore your PC, listed in the following order "Backup and Restore" icon, "Recovery" icon, "System" icon --> "System Protection" for "System Restore".

All 3 options achieve different things but one would expect that they should provide the same backup safety mechanism.

richms

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#404779 15-Nov-2010 11:16

yeah, not to mention the 3 right click options for changing stuff for a printer.

But anyway, the most usable and non crap UI in windows is the media center one. Its a shame that freeview have their heads so far up their asses that they wont provide a guide that it can directly use and you have to mess around with hacks to get a working guide.

Richard rich.ms

mcraenz

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#405425 16-Nov-2010 16:51

I gave a little review of my experience of a dirt cheap usb receiver here:
http://blog.rhysgoodwin.com/htpc/10-usb-dvb-t-receiver-review/

I've since ordered a second one.

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#405454 16-Nov-2010 17:31

There is a Haugepage usb one for about $100. Also I believe you can set it up with mediaportal on windows, and use that for recording a viewing programs. I have used mediaportal on a media PC, but without the TV card, just using it for online videos such as TVNZ ondemand and DVDs, and find it good.