TV Tuner Card, which one?

[justin_otis]

I would recommend NOT getting the Hauppage WinTV card. It really sucks and will not give good resolution.

[Hawkeye178]

**If I put this in the wrong spot please move it to where it belongs http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif**

Hi, I wanna use my comp. to watch TV, and I want a good quality card to watch it on, for AROUND, $60.00 is not around $40.00, $40.00 bucks.

Thanks,
Hawkeye178

[This message has been edited by Hawkeye178 (edited 09-13-2001).]

[AndreRIO]

i have the hauppage wintv card, and, the image quality is not very good.

[Ironforge]

I use ATI TV Wonder..

it works fairly well..

Image quality is good but not excellent... you can notice minor flaws..

but then again that could be the TV feed.. since you are displaying it on high res monitor you might be able to notice the flaws of the low resolution signal.. heh

of course if you watch it from a little bit away.. like from on your bed or something it is harder to tell..

[Banti]

The guys at work prefer this company...Pinnacle (http://www.pinnaclesys.com/productpage.asp?templ=8&Product_ID=6). At my job, we need our comp tv picture to be as clear as a normal tv... one caveat we use the PAL versions of the cards so your mileage may vary.


Banti

[gyoung]

I've got the Hauppauge WinTV card and the quality isn't that good. Though I bought mine used, so I don't know if that is the way it was when it was first purchased.

The Hauppauge card is limited in it's resolution in Win2K to 640x480.

[Nick CPU]

The Hauppauge WinTV card has worked fine for me, I even got a Keyspan remote tha works perfectly with WinTV 2000. WinTV cards are very affordable under $50 and have done very well in my opinion for the price.

[ticktack]

Originally posted by Nick CPU
The Hauppauge WinTV card has worked fine for me, I even got a Keyspan remote tha works perfectly with WinTV 2000. WinTV cards are very affordable under $50 and have done very well in my opinion for the price.

I thought that Hauppauge WinTV card do sells their own remote cheaply? BTW, where can I get details for your remote & how much?

[Hawkeye178]

Thanks guys, I'll check them, I should of said before I wanted a remote with it, I'm very lazy :D

[Nick CPU]

The remote I bought is much better because It is fully programable to do work with any other applications. I got my remote through compusa for about $50 plus shipping The brand is Keyspan its USB and works great.

[ticktack]

Originally posted by Nick CPU
The remote I bought is much better because It is fully programable to do work with any other applications. I got my remote through compusa for about $50 plus shipping The brand is Keyspan its USB and works great.

Whao, that's an expensive piece of remote controller!!! :)

Seriously, I am quite satisfy with this default remote by Hauppauge until my little cousins spoilt it by throwing....& enquired from Hauppauge that it costs around US$10 for that brand new replacements!

[Mal]

I have a WinTV-GO card. Its fine for me. On channels with good signals, its clearer than any non-digital TVs I've seen. I'll load up some screen caps soon, but they're all in 320x240. I would have larger ones, but my card isn't connected to a cable outlet at the moment.

The screen caps are here (http://freeweb.pdq.net/esho/stuff/wintv/). All the caps are 320x240 apart for one. They mostly screen caps of the shows The Critic, The Simpsons and the movie The Godfather, Part II.

[AuraEdge]

Ive been through 2 TV cards. The Pinnacle PCTV Pro and the Hauppauge WinTV-D. I got the pinnacle after reading many suggestions, and believe it was around $75 and still is. I got the WinTV-D because it was a digital TV capable TV Tuner that was on sale for $50, with Stereo and Remote, the same features the PCTV Pro boast. However, the Hauppauge didnt cut it! The software was not as easy to use, and the image quality wasn't good. Also you couldnt resize the TV window to higher than 640x480 without going fullscreen, and when you do fullscreen, it actually resizes the resolution to 640x480 to fullscreen, so you cant do anything else while its fullscreened. With the higher res monitors out now, that can be a big caveat (for me, I run in 1280x1024, and that means less than a quarter of my screen, or the whole thing. The pinnacle doesnt have this problem. You can resize to any size, and it will scale well, and in fullscreen, it just resamples to the resolution of your desktop and you can put it behind everything, so you can surf or IM while the TV is fullscreen in the background. Also the TV just looks better on the pinnacle. The Hauppauge is sitting in a box right now. Another strange problem - the Hauppauge remote uses a universal (I think) remote control so every time i turned on the TV on the computer, the TV across the room would turn on as well. While this would theoritically make it easier to replace, its caused many headaches when I changed my roommates channels by mistake.
Another thing is that they are still upgrading it - Its not the same TV tuner over the last several years. They used to use a...I think it was Temic TV Tuner. On the new version they use a Philips TV Tuner. I've been though both after selling my old one to a friend when I got back from college because I no longer had cable, and the image quality on the new one is either as good or better than the old one. The new one also comes with a remote with at least twice as many buttons as the old one (still dunno what half of them do..)

Features boasted by the PCTV (Pro) are:

Excellent Image Quality (better than Hauppauge)
Nonproblematic Win2k Functionality
Excellent resizability and fullscreen functionality
Very little cable clutter in the back of the comp
Stereo sound (only on Pro Version)
Remote Control (Only on Pro Version)
FM Tuner (only on pro version, not very impressive at all on old version, even with a powered amplified FM anntenna. Havent tried on new Philips version
The Nonpro version is about $50 I believe, but I think $25 is well worth it for stereo sound, a remote, and, for what its worth, an FM tuner.

And a last note - Dont buy USB TV Tuners, no matter what the company. USB doesnt have the bandwidth that a TV Tuner needs, and wont be smooth no matter how well engineered. I guess it would be OK for a laptop, but for desktop, definitly go for a PCI one.

[Hawkeye178]

Thanks guys, I could've sworn the Hauppage was a good card too anyways, the Pinnacle might be a little too much for me, but I'll consider it.

Thanks,
Hawkeye178

[RobRich]

I use a WinTV Stereo in one of my 2ndary boxes, and it does work "as advertised." However, its image quality is definitely sub-par as compared to similar PinnacleSys cards that I've work with in the past. Recommednation? Spend the extra dollars!

Any rate, I'm using a Matrox G450 eTV for most of my video work these days.

Robert Richmond

[Warthog]

Actually, I bought my Pinnacle card from AuraEdge's recommendation:)

I've had great success with this card.......except it crashes my comp a lot but that's because of my neglect to defrag, etc. and general lack of "mainatence" on my pc :)

Warthog