Thread: TV TUNER CARD -- help me !!

Hi guys

I am thinking of buying a TV tuner card. Could you please help me which company make is good. Also whether internal or external, what is advantage over one another.

Suggest me a good one with cheap cost. it would better to know the price list of all and they best known for.

I am using one from pixel view. It is among fine brands. I use an internal TV tuner card.

how much it is ?, in one of your post you were asking for the update of the software for pixel view, have you faced any problem with your tv tuner as of now ?

what about pinnacle ? many recommending pinnacle tv tuner.

I brought it along with my system some 4 years ago. My software is working properly. Never faced any problem. I was just checking for better software. Not sure about Pinnacle brand. Pixel view a popular brand when it comes to TV Tuner card.

Originally Posted by inba

how much it is ?, in one of your post you were asking for the update of the software for pixel view, have you faced any problem with your tv tuner as of now ?

what about pinnacle ? many recommending pinnacle tv tuner.

I have Pinnacle Media center tuner.

Quality is definitely good.

I bought it about 3 years ago.

All the drivers are regularly updated. BTW you won't need any update until you change your OS.

I have successfully configured it in 3-4 LINUX distros too, gets detected pretty easily.

In my opinion internal is good due to the fact that the performance of features like timeshift and realtime recording, is little bit better than external ones.

But if you are planning for a laptop TV tuner, go for USB one, because PCI tuner will block one slot and won't leave you with any more possibility of future addition of any PCI device like data card etc.
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I don't know if that model is still in production or not. May be you can get some new models.I bought it at around 3000/- in Jan, 2007. No idea about today's price.

Any more queries , ask me..................

basically there are 2 types of tuner cards in internal, one with hardware encoder and the other without it. a hardware encoder does the job of processing the picture itself so there is hardly any processor usage; in case of non hardware processing, the older processors will be used more (not so much with the core 2 series).

as far as picture quality is concerned, m using a non hardware encoding pixelview pro tv 3 card, and its doing a good job. the software could have been better but it gets the job done and that too at a fraction of the price of the high end cards. but be aware that these software encoding based cards are not supported by major PVR software, like windows media centre for instance. so choose carefully.

i got mine for 1100 bucks off ebay some 4 months back during wimbledon... helped a LOT ...

cheers!

Me too using pixel view play tv pro 3 got it for 1100 months ago.Its good ,records with the same quality we are getting from cable guys.Proccy usage is not a prob if u hav a new PC even my p4 doin good.
Only 1 prob noted is that while fast moving picture comes some frame drop
will be felt.
eg motion of ball in a football match. cricket etc but its not a major prob
All other things are good.
If u need to avoid that thing, you should buy pinnacle card for 3k+

Also the software coming along with it is not gud.Use honestech TVR
Now pixelview play tv pro 4 is available in market

@ meetdilip, puchu,stark,ajai5777

thanks for your valuable suggestions guys,

one more doubt,

my pc Config is

P4 2.8 ghz processor
512 mb ram
80 gb harddisk

will it get slow if i use the internal tv tuner for watching /recording the video ?

Welcome

Earlier I had 512 MB. While recording video, system was a bit slow. But the process was smooth. It will be better not to use any resource hogging programs while recording.

please suggest an internal TV tuner card which can be used with windows media center PC also it should have time shifting and real time recording.

Originally Posted by iorhld

please suggest an internal TV tuner card which can be used with windows media center PC also it should have time shifting and real time recording.

as suggested by puchu go for pinnacle which has those features with windows media center pc

internal better than external and ive used both
and i preferred internal

finally ,i came to conclusion that going to buy an external one, since i don't want to record or involve my CPU in processing this. i just want it for the sake of watching TV. so external is enough in my way

Wish you all the best. Please post a review once you bought it.

ya sure meetdilip

just an update, this cheapo Pixelview Pro3 card is compatible to run with windows 7 media centre! though the old drivers are causing problems for timeshifting (on media centre as well as the supplied crappy software..

Anything with a MCE remote is nice as it can be used with the program to flick onto your media easily.... Leadtek is the brand I've been using for years, you might want to check their products out.

Originally Posted by iorhld

please suggest an internal TV tuner card which can be used with windows media center PC also it should have time shifting and real time recording.

http://www.indiabroadband.net/comput...tml#post246803 (TV TUNER CARD -- help me !!)

Originally Posted by inba

@ meetdilip, puchu,stark,ajai5777

thanks for your valuable suggestions guys,

one more doubt,

my pc Config is

P4 2.8 ghz processor
512 mb ram
80 gb harddisk

will it get slow if i use the internal tv tuner for watching /recording the video ?

I had the following since May,2005
AMD 64 Athlon 2800+(1.8GHz)(OC-2GHz)
512MB DDR400(now-2.5GB DDR400)
Pinnacle media center tuner(with Fully functional remote control)

No sluggishness during TV viewing, time shifting or recording, even with loads of theme elements and decoration. I have never use Intel, so don't know about that, but as it is 2.4GHz that you have, so there should not be any problem.
xp and W7 media center work well, LINUX TV time works great.

I have bought Philips TV tuner card [internal] in March 2009 and it is working fine. Internal TV tuner card's price is half than external

External TV Tuner : 1500 Rs.
Internal TV Tuner : 750 Rs.

i recommending u pinnacle internal tv tuner, i m using it from last nine years with out any pronlem.