TV Tuner questions

[MadMatt]

I have the ATI TV Wonder card. Here's what I know:

1. The picture quality is EXCELLENT - better than my regualer TV - mostly due to the fact that a monitor's picture is inherently better than a TV's.

2. You can do other things while watching TV - you can even have the TV image as your desktop's wallpaper.

3. You can hook up your regular co-ax TV cable to it or input from a VCR or camcorder via RCA jacks.

4. The TV tuner is built into the card and is turned on via software.

5. Mine works just fine now - The software was a little buggy when I got it (fixed with a patch) and I had to edit a registry key to get it to work properly.

All this and you can use it as a digital VCR (ala Tivo or Replay TV). However, you'll needs a big hard drive for that (about 1.5gb/hour!).

[Warthog]

Wow!!! Thank you very much!!! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

I just have one additional question, though. For some reason I thought that you had to connect your tuner to a tv via a cable. I have cable tv (actually getting installed as I type), how can the software know the channels? Can you clear this up a little for me? I'm obviously very confused about this http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif.

Warthog

*EDIT - Oops! Never mind. It didn't quite register. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Warthog (edited 05-30-2000).]

[Warthog]

Been thinking about buying a TV tuner to watch TV on my computer. For those of you who have one or know about them:

1. How good is the picture quality?
2. Can I do other tasks while watching TV?
3. What cable is needed?
4. Does the "host" TV need to be turned on when watching TV on computer?
5. Does it work well (no skipping, weird noises, etc.)?

Thanks! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Warthog

[thekingofpain]

I use the AllinWonder 32 meg, it works GREAT, I have a separate 20gig for TV capture, the still shots come out great, fine DVD decoding, replay on the fly so you can watch the action more then once, it has a cool feature where I can thumbnail all the channels simultaneously, and (geez im not tryin to sell ya one http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif) has a pretty cool video editor built in so you can connect the camcorder to it...had no probs, bought an OEM one and saved a few bucks...one of the cooler products ive purchased...

[RobRich]

This might answer several of your questions:
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ListSolutionProducts.asp?solution=1

Pinnacle has great quality TV tuner cards, and the prices are good. I consider them much better than the WinTV models you commonly see at retail stores.

Good Luck,
Robert Richmond

[Warthog]

Thanks!

Warthog