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Record TV onto comp

post #1 of 12
11/22/04 at 2:21am
Thread Starter 
I'm interested in recording TV programs onto my computer and then eventually put them on CD's or DVD's. I remember looking in newegg.com a couple of years ago and coming across a video card type thing sold there that did this. Since I can't remember the product name and that there probably will be better one out now, I was wondering if you could direct me to some. Thanks.
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post #2 of 12
11/22/04 at 2:32am
They're called TV tuners and they slot into your desktop's PCI slot (there are also external USB 2.0 ones).

Typically, ive gone through 2 pinnacle TV tuners and a no-name one, the best one i think is a Winfast card. I havent tried the high end ones though, Pinnacle i hear makes great high end TV tuner cards, but form my experiance, horrible middle range ones.

I reccomend the Winfast TV2000XP Expert card. It's low profile, easy to setup and gives great reception.
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post #3 of 12
11/22/04 at 3:47am
Also check out ATI's ALL-IN-WONDER and TV-WONDER products here:
http://www.ati.com/products/multimedia.html

Cool Stuff
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post #4 of 12
11/22/04 at 3:57am
yea, ive heard some good things about ATi's all in wonder products, but i would prefer to keep TV tuner and graphics card separated as to not share the heat around, not a problem if you're watercooling the card though.
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post #5 of 12
11/22/04 at 4:06am
TV-WONDER then
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post #6 of 12
11/28/04 at 3:39pm
Thread Starter 
I've looked at both of the ones you guys suggested, but i have another question. Do you suggest a USB tuner or not? What are the benefits of the PCI over the USB and vice versa? I was just considering a USB tv tuner so I could attach it to my laptop every now and then. My desktop is pretty old and only has a 20 gig hard drive... The only thing is that my desktop doesn't have USB 2.0 connections, and I'm not really sure how to configure my laptop to recognize USB 2.0 devices...
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post #7 of 12
11/28/04 at 6:02pm
For a standard Hardware encoded card with great software support I'd recommend the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250, 350 or USB2. Great software support for GotAllMedia, Beyond TV, SageTV, WinXP MCE, and many many more applications. The Hauppauge cards can be purchased through Newegg.com.

For HDTV tuning, I'd highly recommend the Fusion III HDTV Gold-T. You can find a good review for it here. This one is a bit hard to find, but I did manage to find a reseller for it here
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post #8 of 12
11/29/04 at 4:38am
well, ive had bad experiances with external USB tuners. unless you splash out big on them, you ALWAYS get horrible image quality. Not sure if it's just me, but i would never reccomend an external USB tuner.
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post #9 of 12
11/29/04 at 10:46am
I have an external USB tv tuner, it works great! I had no problem with it. I like the external ones because they are portable and you can plug them into any computer with USB 2.0. If you buy a PCI version, you are stuck with only one TV tuner for one PC. If you have a USB version, you have one TV tuner for multiple PCs (assuming that they also have USB 2.0, too). The image quality is the same in my opinion, I have a PCI TV tuner and a USB one. I think my USB version looks better. I'm thinking about getting an ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 hardware. And besdies, you can always test it out and then return if if you don't like it.
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post #10 of 12
12/1/04 at 2:22am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the info. What USB 2.0 cards did you, both nikeairj and NovaShine, have so I know which ones to take a closer look at or which to stay away from. If my comp does not have a USB 2.0 ports, then will there be a drastic effect on the quality? And if so should I just stick to the PCI card? Thanks again for all the input.
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post #11 of 12
12/1/04 at 2:29am
I got Transcend TV Box USB 2.0. check it out @ www.transcendusa.com .

You might want to check out ATI's new TV Wonder USB 2.0, too.
http://www.ati.com/products/tvwonderusb20/index.html

good luck!
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post #12 of 12
12/2/04 at 11:39am
i have an ati all-in-wonder pro 128 mb card (around $300) and i love it. i wanted to record tv also, and i went with this and i love it. it records in dvd quality. i also have a $70 usb thing, and it doesnt even compare to the all-in-wonder. just letting you know, if you want quality, and trust me you do, go with the aiw. i'll answer any questions you have about mine if you want to know
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