Help On Getting TV on Computer

[silence]

Hello,

I'm not sure where to go, so hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. I want to know how I can get TV on my computer and what devices I need. If someone knows where I can find an article or something on this, I'd be very greatful.

Thanks for your help :)

[noisedude]

you need a tv card of some sort. the happague (spelling?) ones seem to come out quite well in review. if you fancy a new graphics card at the same time, get an ATI all-in-wonder or matrox marvel that have got tv stuff onboard.

the best cheap option is the radeon 7500 all-in-wonder, more expensive is the 8500 which will give you ge-force 3 level game speeds.

hope this helps.

[silence]

thanks ...
but just to clarify,
my MSI Geforce2Ti-VT won't do?

[joerg]

Not alone but you can pick a good tv tuner card like the ati TV wonder pci or the haugpaug WinTV Go for 50 bucks and use it with your current video card. Watch out for incompatibility issues with these cards though as a large amount of motherboard chipsets will require an update off of there website.

[araaraara]

Most video cards with the TV feature are TV Out cards. The can only send the signal to a tv so you can watch your computer screen on a tv.

[noisedude]

yeah, your video card's fine already so go for one of those that joerg suggested. if you want to spend a little more, look at things like radio/infra-red remote controls, tv on demand hard-disk recording where you can 'pause' live tv, and any software bundles.

[WyreTheWolf]

Radeon LE w/ TV out is $55.00 usd

TADA ! cheapest fastest solution for getting your PC on TV!

[araaraara]

Wyre - you've got it backwards. He wants his PC on his TV.

[WyreTheWolf]

OOOPs, My bad!


Then the 7500 and 8500 won't work ... they don't have TV in ...

The Radeon 64DDR "ViVo" would work ... or a TV card.

The ATi TV Wonder VE is only like $45 on the web.

Check with www.pricewatch.com

[russ079]

I use the Hauppage WinTV card in my computer and it works great in W98. I must warn you though, I was never satisfied with the reception until I hooked up cable to it. Rabbit ears just don't seem to pull in the channels. When you hook up a cable TV connectin to it though, it rocks!

[fishninja007]

On this same subject, my cable provider (AT&T in California, USA) brodcasts some channels in a digital cable format. I have something like channels 1-80 are 'normal' channels, then the rest are this digital format. Anyone know if there are tuner cards that can take the digital cable signal? Also, what about premium scrambled channels? I take it I am outta luck trying to watch something that is scrambled even if I pay for it and get it on my cable box?

[michaeln]

My two cents worth,


I have a Hauppage (pronounced Hop Hog) Win TV card in 1 PC and an ATI All In Wonder 128 pro in another PC. My preference is the ATI as the clarity is better. Another advantage of the ATI has built in DVD Decoder aswell.

I don't know what the All In Wonder RADEON chip board works like.

On the down side, ATI always seem to produce questionable drivers. Most often the drivers as supplied on the installation CD are buggy. You might have to D/L more stable drivers from their site.

[silence]

Thanks for your suggestions!

looks like I'm gonna get the ATI-TV WONDER. but this is a *maybe*

[Slimster]

I have the WinTv from Hauppage. Had it for a couple of years. Works good with Win98 and 2000. I've had no complaints with it but I've never seen another brand to compare it too.

My only complaint is that I went cheap and got the mono version. Should have got the stereo one.

[russ079]

Out of curiosity, if members are still following this thread, does anyone know whether these TV tuners work ok with the new XP OS? I'm getting a new system that has XP installed, and was hoping to transfer over my Hauppage WinTv card to the new machine and OS. Should I anticipate any problems?

Thanks!

[jrb420]

My GeForce 3 has VIVO and I'm running WinXP. I also have digital cable and a cable internet connection. I just got a second digital cable box (for free, you just pay a small deposit) and ran it through my GF3 and ran the sound through my sound card. I have to use the cable box to tune channels, but I like it. The picture looks better than my tv.
It's convenient for me because my girlfriend watches some stupid shows(like Survivor and Temptaion Island) so I can retreat to my room and watch tv while I surf the net. Don't have room for a second tv, that's why i do this with my computer.

[Slimster]

Hauppage has drivers and apps for XP.

http://www.hauppauge.com/html/sw_wcst.htm

[michaeln]

ATI All In Wonder 128 Pro works win XP. Drivers available for D/L from the ATI site

[BipolarBill]

My 4 year old Hauppauge WinTV PCI works better in XP than it did in Win98/ME or Win2K. There's a new feature implemented called de-interlacer (http://www.hauppauge.com/xp/software/xp_wintvpci.htm). I would bet that this feature makes it equal or superior to the ATI - unless they have it too. If they had it first, slap me please!

[SubliminalCrime]

FlyVideo 2000 comes with 120 something channels;cable or air;stereo sound;Video and sound in ;sound out;Fm tuner ;remote control
$100-130 Oz.Probably around 1/2 that in the US
works okay with 2000 and ME but motion is stilted
[frame dropping]totally fluid running under Linux[mandrake 8]Can capture and take stills;capture can be Uncompressed or compressed;sound sampling rates are variable;as with frame rates .Works well with My dual monitor/Tv out card!:cool: :cool: FlyVideo

[WyreTheWolf]

found an OEM version of the Radeon 7500 for $84
or the retail version (comes w/ game) for $94.

[Badge56]

I have been jerking around with TV cards for a long time now and have tried a few.
Lately I have had 3 different ones in my box.
ATI TV-Wonder = Works with Windows XP just fine but conflicts with SBAudigy.... lots of problems... got rid of it.

Phoebe TV- Master = TV works fine ( must use overlay mode ). Found the software some what buggy so I switched again.

Hauppaugue WinTV GO= cheap..... works real nice in Win XP and NO incompatibilities with Audigy. Software is also nice...
Thats the one I am using now ( 3 days ) so far very happy but I should have taken the stereo model.. :-(

One thing that helps using a TV on XP is disabling the "show window when dragging" option in display...

I have also installed All-in-Wonder 128s and Radeons and they all work just fine on XP. None had the SBAudigy installed so I don't know if this would be a issue or not with them cards. My TV Wonder would be just fine without the SBAudigy. It created vertical lines the the TV image.... could not get rid of them..

Hope this helps..

[jwerner1]

Haven't seen any messages about compatability with XP....
I'm having difficulty with a year old STB-TV/FM card on my Compaq PC. The Compaq 1Ghz AMD box runs XP great; just can't see the STB card.

[asgodinez]

Hi,

A very cheap option is I/OMagic PC PVR. It cost me $40 at CompUSA and comes with Cyberlink PowerVCR II, a very good Digital Video Recorder. I've been using it for 7 months with Win2k and works flawlessly. It records MPEG 1 & 2, so you could burn VCDs and watch them in your DVD player.

Because you usually have already the graphic card in your PC, this is a good supplement. It only needs overlay compatibility from your video card (most of them have it) and the sound is processed through your sound card.

I am really satisffied with that purchase.:)

[BubbaD]

Be careful

I bought a ATI VE real cheap and it was CHEAP. Since then, I bought a ATI All In One and it works great!!!

[wolfmeister]

I have a Hauppaugue WinTV with remote and radio (the whole 9 yards) it works fine with windows xp, had it about 3 months or so ... no problems, you need to download 2 files from win tv if software is not xp ready.

[Mr. Mike9]

I have GeForce2 Mx400 Xtasy Everything 5564 that has as many if not more inputs than my tv. It has a cable connected box that takes in cable, ant., rca jack and svidio. When the other half has the remote, I go to my nvidia!:D

[Frenzied]

You will need to check the manufacturers web site to see if there are updated drivers for your cards. There are definately TV tuner cards that are compatible with XP so just check before you buy.

[Mr. Mike9]

Your right Frenzied, I had to download from nvidia and visiontek to get up and running.

[hellonfish]

Hey all,

I have the ati tv wonder and love it. The only complaint was the drivers do not support sharing of irq, whick can make for a painful install. The qaulity of tv is great on the computer, especially with cable.

Later

[silence]

I guess it's safe to say that ATI generally has better image quality? Or am I wrong?

[WyreTheWolf]

When it comes to MultiMedia noone has been able to top ATi. In general the Image Quality (IQ) of an ATi card will be higher than the competition. Especially in the DVD hardware decoding/play back department.

[TMP]

just dont get the ATI TV Wonder VE. I have it and it sucks. It's audio is only mono. It hisses really bad..and makes an annoying sound every time I switch the channel....Using MMC 7.5 with it improved the video quality some, but not much. I have that in my rig with a Radeon8500..The TV Wonder VE pales in comparison to the TV tuner in my old rig that is on an ATI 16MB All in Wonder..You'd think that a new Tuner card would be better than a 3 or 4 year old card...but it definitely isn't...plus the fact that they hide the fact that the audio is mono...I wouldnt have bought it if I'd known that...but I am too lazy to return it...

[michaeln]

Originally posted by TMP
just dont get the ATI TV Wonder VE. I have it and it sucks. It's audio is only mono. It hisses really bad..and makes an annoying sound every time I switch the channel....Using MMC 7.5 with it improved the video quality some, but not much. I have that in my rig with a Radeon8500..The TV Wonder VE pales in comparison to the TV tuner in my old rig that is on an ATI 16MB All in Wonder..You'd think that a new Tuner card would be better than a 3 or 4 year old card...but it definitely isn't...plus the fact that they hide the fact that the audio is mono...I wouldnt have bought it if I'd known that...but I am too lazy to return it...

I had a similar problem with bad hissing sound when I first installed my All In Wonder but I went back to my sound properties and muted the CD Audio and this cleared up my Audio problems

[TMP]

I went back to my sound properties and muted the CD Audio

dude. thats a good tip. thanks. I will try that when I get home from work...i would think a lot more of the cheapo card if it didnt hiss and bump..

[kazuza]

ASUS GForce2GTS V7700 Deluxe TV 64MB worked perfectly!
The rest DIDN'T ! :D

Deleting partitions and reformating hard drive to FAT 32
Welcome back, WIN ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Trojan]

I've used the ATI All-In-Wonder Pro for the last 2 yrs or so and think it is a great card. Very easy tto use, simply plug in and hook up cable & watch World Cup while U surf! Go Brazil!!!

[MoxManiac]

My suggestion is the Leadtek Winfast2000XP TV/capture card, $65 or so at newegg.com

Has TV tuner, FM Tuner, S-video/Composite in, and even includes a remote. It comes with TV viewing/Radio listening and capturing software. I've used it with Win98SE and Windows XP Pro and it works flawlessly in both OSes. Be sure to get the program updates to the included software from Leadtek's site.

I've been using this card for a couple months, great TV and capture quality/ability. :)

[rond36]

I have the ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV 64MB and it works great. Hook your cable TV right to the card. It comes with a RF(radio frequency) remote that doubles as a wireless mouse. You can even hook a VCR to it and record VHS tapes to your hard drive as MP2 or AVI files to do this you need large HDDs a 1.5 hour movie in MP2 takes about 4GB of disk space

I use my PC as my bedroom TV

If you are looking for some thing a little less expensive you may want to look in to this:

ViewSonic VB50HRTV TV Tuner: Turn your display into a high-resolution TV (can be used on any Brand Monitor) - RETAIL Turn your display into a high-resolution TV today! With the VB50HRTV TV tuner module you can instantly turn your LCD or CRT display into a TV or multimedia center with multiple plug-and-play video entertainment connections. You get a full-screen TV viewing experience. And, the VB50HRTV comes with everything you need to get started, including cables and a remote control.

Only $98.00 at newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=221&manufactory=1226&DEPA=1)