I'm looking into a TV tuner for my computer to use for laziness purposes... I was checking around ebay and found a couple...I noticed ATI creates them, so I decided to go with them as they are a very reputable computer hardware manufacturer. I was looking at a simple unit, seen here do you think it is a good idea? Please do not opt for the idea that I just use a television. Ty

 

looks aiight. if it was me I'd go with a 10-bit chip.

 

Hmmm...I have a View Sonic VB50HRTV. Its actually an external unit that uses your computer monitor as a TV monitor. So you arent able to watch TV and do computer work at the same time. But I like it. It even comes with a remote.

 

I looked around, very good reviews about this product.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...100-113&depa=0

 

Hm.. I have a View Sonic 19" monitor, so maybe I should go with that, where'd you purchase that? I'm just shopping around now, so im very flexible..... i took gymnastics :sad:

 

i bought it YEARS ago.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...116-001&depa=0

i think i bought it for $100.

 

Go with ATI, its just my personal preferance on video cards... had problems with 3 GeForce cards, switched to ATI, not a problem since

 

ati makes good video graphics card but i dont know about their tv tuner cards. their theater chip isn't as good as conexant chips. i'd go with msi tv@nywhere master or leadtek tv expert. the kworld model above has the 10 bit chip but i dunno about the design of their card

 

the ati wonder ve card got some pretty bad customer ratings :dunno:

i bought a 9600 aiw and i havent even tried the tuner function yet :exnbp:

 

I have a version of that ATI card (mine's the Pro version that has component and S-video imputs as well as the coax for cable). Personally, I'm not happy with it. When I first installed it, it was terrible. I have a Pentium 4C, 2.8GHz 800Mhz FSB and Hyperthreaded, appearantly TV tuner cards don't play well with hyperthreading and the program would crash just about any time it opens. I had to get a hotfix from microsoft about it (which I found about on ATI's site, but burried deep in their online help articles). Now the program is more stable, but still does crash on occassion. I'll come back and it will have finished recording a show but never shut down, and didn't record any shows set after the one that failed to stop.

Using the integrated audio on my MB, the sound from the TV recorder sounded like it was underwater during playback. I upgraded to an Audigy 2ZS (I also went with a good 5.1 speaker system) and the audio sounds normal now (the sound to lip sync is still a little off though) but now the recording program can't mute the audio when it's recording. It's a known problem with using those two together, but I've got the newest drivers from both and the newest mediacenter and installed in every order you can but it still doesn't work. When I used the recorder, I have to remember to mute or turn off my speakers or it will play while it's recording (and continue too if it crashes and doesn't shut off). If I'm using the computer and I need sound (like I"m playing a game), when the recorder comes on, I can't turn the sound of the TV off in the background, I usually just kill the recorder program when that happens so I can keep playing. I basically have it turned off now (isn't set to record anything) just because it's annoying. I build a little shuttle SFF system for my girlfriend and I'm going to put this card in that and just make it a little PVR/media center when we move out.

Personally, the hardwares not bad, the picture looks good and sounds was fine with the new card. I don't like their media center application, it just isn't a great program and their bundled in programming guide is garbage. It must be be manually updated about every 7 days (there is not auotmated setting) or the programs you have set to record ever week won't have names, just unittled.avi and it's just not really well designed or intuitiave. Mine crashed a while back and I never bothered to uninstall and reinstall it to fix it. I think a card like this is a cool idea but not for your primary PC. I wish it could just function in the background without having open the program and turn on the TV itself to record but there's no way to set it up like that. If you really want one, I'd probably try a different brand and try some different software. ATI's remote is pretty cool but kinda pointless when I'm sitting at the computer with the keyboard right infront of me. I'll probably use it when we setup that shutttle box though.