TV Tuner card question

[cheapchinese]

I'm looking into purchasing some sort of tuner card. What I want to do is be able to connect my Cable to the card, and use my computer as a sort of television, and perhaps even record whatever I'm watching/playing as well. I'd prefer an internal card. I've searched the forums, but didn't find any similar threads. Let me know what you guys think, as well as what you use.

I'd prefer the tuner card have composite/s-video/RCA/Coaxial connections, if at all possible.

and what forums are out there that talks about this kinda stuff... i searched around.. and all of them are like 2 years old... i wouldn't want to read old info's.

tia

[SnowSurfer]

this is what i am buying next week i believe

http://store.snapstream.com/btv-analog.html

seems like apretty good deal to me and most of the guides i have seen have people using that card to record. hauppage has been around for as long as i can remember.

[Jenny]

I just got this a few weeks ago and LOVE it. Easy to use, works great and does everything i need it to do.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00064GI2O/

It's the same card as in SnowSurfer's post without the program that comes with it on his. I am just using programs that are free and they work fine.

[johnnymk]

this is what i am buying next week i believe

http://store.snapstream.com/btv-analog.html

seems like apretty good deal to me and most of the guides i have seen have people using that card to record. hauppage has been around for as long as i can remember.

I bought the Hauppauge 250 bundle last year for a little bit less. The 250 and 350 uses less CPU resources since it's hardware processed, not software like the 150.

I think you could find a better deal elsewhere.

[Jenny]

wow, my 150 is really good on system resources. I never have a problem doing other things while I'm recording or watching.

[Kudos]

my Hauppage 150 uses little system resources as well, but I also have a pretty decent computer, 64bit Athlon, 1GB Corsair XMS Pro memory and a Seagate SATA HDD.

www.pcalchemy.com has nice bundle prices, and MCE2005 is an awesome OS

[SnowSurfer]

jenny what free programs are you using, i have a athlon xp overclocked to 2.2 ghz with a gig of ram should the 150 be ok?

[SnowSurfer]

the new 150 has hardware processing*

[johnnymk]

the new 150 has hardware processing*

Excellent!!

[SnowSurfer]

i bought the whole bundle with remote for 137 shipped.... the thing was the remote is 49.99, the card is 69.99 and the software is 69.99 so yea....i think i got a good deal...

[Aristo]

Is there any reaosn why I should upgrade to Hauppauge 250 from 150?

[johnnymk]

Is there any reaosn why I should upgrade to Hauppauge 250 from 150?

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html

I don't see any difference, except for other software support

[SnowSurfer]

yah i dont see a difference either

[jstreet]

I bought an ATI All-In-Wonder TV tuner PCI card ages ago, circa 2001. The software really sucked and during the most recent installation of my computer (I erase and reload every 1-2 years) I just took out the card.

[SnowSurfer]

are the all in wonders hardware or software processing?

if anyone wants to know how to get around the pesky ness of only being able to watch one show while you are recording...i made a pretty diagram in paint to show how im going to do it

ok i cant upload to an ftp at the moment so yea ill post it later

[jstreet]

are the all in wonders hardware or software processing?

I take it back, mine was a "TV Wonder". The "All in Wonders" combine a graphics card w/the TV tuner.

At any rate, I'm almost positive it didn't do hardware anything. My system begged for death whenever I ran it.

[ialsohaveadream]

At any rate, I'm almost positive it didn't do hardware anything. My system begged for death whenever I ran it.

Maybe it was tired of showing you reruns of Absolutely Fabulous.

[jstreet]

Maybe it was tired of showing you reruns of Absolutely Fabulous.

"Remember when we could wake up and feel fabulous?"

"Yeah, and without pills."

too funny

[Kudos]

I love my Hauppage 150, just wish I could watch one show while recording another without splitting the cable. Use the computer to record one, and use the tv to display another

[cheapchinese]

splitters only 5 bucks @ radio shack

[SnowSurfer]

thats exactly what im doing, spliting the cable and then using an a-b box to select if i want the tv tuner or the pvr...

[SnowSurfer]

ok this thing rocks. i had to use the s-video out to get to my tv but recording shows rocks and people have written programs to edit out the commericals and also automatically encode to xvid!!

[cheapchinese]

ok this thing rocks. i had to use the s-video out to get to my tv but recording shows rocks and people have written programs to edit out the commericals and also automatically encode to xvid!!

how??? please clarify

which on are you using? 550 or 150?

[SnowSurfer]

ok the 150 doesnt have a tv out as i originnaly thought. so basically i have the tv line coming in, then i have an svideo out on my video card that goes to a svideo to composite converter (24 dollars at radioshack for this 1 1/2 inch part) then I go from composite to tv. There is a program that uses the data that beyond tv creates to edit out the commercials. it is called igcutter. I uninstalled the auto to xvid because it takes a load of time to encode an hour long episode of csi to xvid on my wimpy xp2500+

any other questions just ask