TV Tuner? General q?

[MASTOURA]

Hey all,

I want to buy a TV tuner for my little bro for Christmas, so that he can watch tv in his room without having my sister breaking his nerves all the time...

Do you guys have any reccomendations? I've heard ATI-TV Wonder is a pretty good piece of hardware, but I don't know anyone who has it... So I turn (once again) to you guys for helping me with these 2 points...

1) I would like a card that has stereo sound and the ability to record on the HDD what is seen in a format that can easily be burned on CD (although I have no idea how many megs will be 30 minutes of video, but I'm sure it depends on the compression). A VCR input would also be nice, so that I can transfer my VHS tapes on CDs. I guess an MPEG-1 or -2 recording will do fine, I'm not sure about AVI or other kinds of other video compressions...

2) The pc I intend to install the TV-tuner has cable connection, and the cable goes into an Ethernet card. I pressume that this will have to change and that I will have to put the cable into the TV-tuner card (makes sense). My question is the following: In order for the PC to still have Internet Access, do I need a "spleeter", or maybe something else?

3) Finally, is there ANY way of taking advantage of this TV-Tuner card and be able to share the reception over a home LAN? This would make my sister happy too hehehheehehe http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif


Thanks for the advice guys, and to those who leave on vacation and won't have Inet access, I wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a great millenium!!!!!

M.

[thekingofpain]

Youve pretty much described the abilitys of the ATI all in wonder, not sure about splitting the cable signal tho (ive heard a single cable carrys the TV AND the broadband signal) and your in home cable equipment sorts that out, im sure a cable user will chime in on that one, (or call your provider) I have cable and dsl goin to my main setup with an Allinwonder Pro 32 and it works very well...

[MASTOURA]

Hey kingofpain,

thanks for the quick reply. Just to clarify some things though:

1) I don't want All in Wonder Pro, since my bro has a GeForce board. I only need the ATI - TV Wonder. I guess it is "part" of the All in Wonder though http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

2) I can't really do what you say, although you are right that there is a UNIQUE cable "carrying" both the Internet and the TV signals. However, this creates a problem:

Currently, the cable comes into the house, goes into a "box" and then directly to the cable modem. Then, it goes to the Ethernet card of the PC. This means that I have ONE cable, but I need TWO connections... So I am wondering if it can be splitted... ANd if yes, where? Before, or after the "box"? I'll contact the provider for sure, but thought that Sysopt has many "hightech" people :-))

Finally, what about the home LAN? Is it possible to take advantage of the Tuner card over a home LAN or not?

Thanks again!!!

M.

[jad1097]

Yes you can add a splitter right before the cable modem then run a coax cable to you cable modem and one to your tv card. That's how I set mine up.

I am not sure but I don't think what you want to do will work over a network because the card will only have one tuner and you can't watch two channels at the same time.

[AMD kicks]

I have a AIW 128 (16mb). I don't like it because it don't have any digital in/out(firewire)connectors. This means you can't capture pure digital output(camcorder). It is no substitute for a real capture card.

[Warthog]

I have a Pinnacle PCTV Pro. You can get it for about $70. I have heard many stories that the ATI TV Wonder is hard to set up. Many people at Sysopt have the Pinnacle. In fact, I was convinced to buy it by a fellow Sysopt member.

Features:
- TV tuner
- remote control
- stereo sound
- composite input
- S-Video input
- FM radio
- video editing software
- capture still images and video
- video conference
- make mpeg, avi or RealVideo movies

I think the compression sucks (not necessarily related to tuner). It might be the settings I have, but I get 10minutes of highest quality MPEG video in 500mb. I know it is possible because I know you can convert a DVD movie to AVI format and it will fit on a 700mb CD-R.

The quality of the recorded video is just under the quality of the tv tuner itself. THAT video is quite good, if not as good as the tv itself. If you are sitting a few feet or more away, it seems even better (no horizontal lines at all).

Warthog

[OuTpaTienT]

Yeah, you can just split the cable before the box.

I just got a Hauppage WinTV PCI card for only $39. Works perfectly with my TNT2. It's not big on features, but for simply watching TV it works great. Couldn't beat it for $39, but it sounds like you want something a little more full featured.