What is the best TV tuner? I do not want HDTV. I see there is different ones on the market. I just want to add basic cable to my computer. Is there a difference between models?
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TV Tuner?
- Thread starter seabass069
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It would be something from www.elgato.com. It depends which country you're in - there are different models to fit the different TV standards around the world.
I forgot to mention that this is for a Windows PC, since I cannot connect cable t.v. to my G5 iMac. I did buy the ATI TV Wonder Pro. I don't like it. I have to connect an audio cable from the t.v. card to my sound card. That now eliminates me using my Delphi XT XM radio. I have to plug that radio device into my soundcard. Are their any suggestions on how I can get cable t.v. to work on my PC without using an audio cable? I don't understand why the audio isn't internal to the card. Why does the t.v. card need an audio cable when it's plugged into a PCI slot?
seabass069 said:
TV audio (from an analog source) is analog - the card manufacturer can save a few cents by routing the audio directly to a line out on the back of the card instead of adding a chip to digitize it and send it over the PCI bus. There may be some tuner cards that do digitize the audio, but I don't know. There are two things you could try though:
1) I know that many tuner cards do (or used to) have one of those little 4-pin audio connectors on the circuit board that you can use to connect it to the sound card's internal audio connection. The cable looks like this: http://sewelldirect.com/cdromaudiocable.asp - and I've attached a picture of what the connector looks like.
2) Failing that, why not get a Y-cable from Radio Shack. It would have a male 1/8" plug on one end (goes to your sound card line in) and 2 female 1/8" jacks on the other, which your XM radio and your TV tuner card plug into, respectively. (Assuming your XM radio has a 1/8" line out... if it has stereo RCA out, just add a female-RCA-to-male-1/8" adapter, also from Radio Shack.)
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You could also upgrade to a sound card that has more than one audio input.
Some people seem to think that Hauppauge tuner cards provide the most bang for your buck. Whatever brand you buy, I would look for one that does hardware encoding (vs. software encoding) and is compatible with Windows Media Center (or Vista).
http://www.hauppauge.com/
Some people seem to think that Hauppauge tuner cards provide the most bang for your buck. Whatever brand you buy, I would look for one that does hardware encoding (vs. software encoding) and is compatible with Windows Media Center (or Vista).
http://www.hauppauge.com/
I ended up returning my ATI TV Wonder Pro. I had problems with the voices not lining up with the actual mouth movements of the TV. I tried updating the drivers and they want you to download 3 separate drivers which never did work. This product is junk.
So, I went back the old faithful, Hauppauge products. I bought the WIN TV PVR-150. Plugged in the card, loaded drivers and it works flawlessly. I am very impressed with this product. Very easy to use and I now have my own PVR.
So, I went back the old faithful, Hauppauge products. I bought the WIN TV PVR-150. Plugged in the card, loaded drivers and it works flawlessly. I am very impressed with this product. Very easy to use and I now have my own PVR.