TV Tuner card
 

Ok. Here's the deal. Me and my two roomates share one TV between us. That has not been a problem so far... but the last few nights I have been unable to play more then an hour or two of Twilight Princess because my roomie is using his TV. Which I can't really blame him for, of course.

But this has made me realize that I need a TV of my own. And, since I have a very nice 23-inch flatscreen monitor right here, I figure I might as well use that. So here's what I want:

Some method to use my computer - monitor AND speakers - as a TV screen, WITHOUT disabling the other functions of the coputer. In other words, I want to be able to minimize the TV window to browse Gamefaqs or whatever I might happen to want at the time. I don't actually watch TV, ever. The only thing I use them for is to hook up my game consoles. So that's all this needs to be able to do. It would also be nice if it supported High Definition TV/consoles, because I'm sure that that'll become more widespread as time goes on. The ability to capture footage would be nice, but it's not important.

So basically I need a TV tuner card that I can plug my game consoles into, supports HD, and runs on my comp. But I have no idea how to choose one. I've been researching this for the past few days, but I'm having trouble finding any helpful source that I can use to pinpoint what I need. Someone help!


I don't know whether it's even a factor, but in case it is, here are my comp stats:

Windows XP
AMD Athlon 64 Processor
2.21 GHz
1.00 GB of RAM
nVidia Geforce 7800 GT card

Thanks in advance. Any help at all is appreciated.

Maybe this should be moved to the Help Desk.

I know very little about TV cards, but I managed to find one that supports HD. Go here. Not too sure if it's any good or not, but it's a start.

Whoops, didn't even see this forum. Sorry about that.

Anyways, thanks for the link. The problem with something like that is that, just looking at the slots in the back, it doesn't seem to support the three-pronged audio/visual cables that most game systems use these days. And it looks like it might be linux based or some such thing, reading the comments.

That's the sort of problems I've been having - I can find all sorts of cards at stores and stuff, but what I need is... some guide to choosing the right one, or at least being able to decipher what the descriptions in the stores mean.

Well, what you want is not exactly possible. I mean, of course it's possible, I just mean not without ALOT of money.

First off, if you plug a console into your computer which then feeds your monitor, you will be dealing with delay issues between the buttons you press and the movements on screen. You can buy cards that don't have a delay, but they are more expensive.

Secondly, I really don't think there are ANY consumer grade PCI cards that take a Y B Pr (component) input. They don't do that because of copy protection issues.

Your best option for wanting to run Composite/Svideo/Component on your 23" LCD, is to get a switcher of some kind. If you have a monitor that has DVI and VGA, you can use DVI with your computer, and VGA with your consoles.
Found one at the egg...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815100114

If you insist on getting an internal card that accepts video, then you will not be able to get component, and your biggest worry will be finding a card that has no delay/lag.

I am looking into getting a tv tuner card myself. I just got a nice 5.1 setup for my pc and I I would love to be able to play my ps2 games with that and my 19-inch sony flat screen.I don't need hdtv, but I do need cheap. I don't relly have much cash to spend for it.

Okay, I use a TV tuner card to watch Television and play my consoles. First things first though. I will tell you now that there are very few tuner cards that support HD signals just for television watching. Finding one with HD inputs is even harder. If you want HD that badly you're either going to have to use a PC monitor with Component/DVI/HDMI in or use a box of somesort to convert the signals.

Now, ignoring that bit of information it isn't that difficult to watch TV on your computer and use your console as well. It isn't that expensive either. Despite what people say there isn't that much signal lag when you use the proper hardware and software. Sometimes there's none at all or if there is it's so small it's not noticable at all. Believe me, I mainly play fast paced games. If there was any noticable lag I wouldn't be able to play them. Like fighters, for example.

Now, what card you should buy depends on the software you wish to use. I suggest using Dscaler. A de-interlacing program that de interlaces the interlaced signal you get over cable or devices like consoles. It has many de-interlacing options and picture filters as well. It can also record video if you wish so it has limited DVR functionality available too.

I can not suggest any better software for TV tuners and the likes. With it I get no lag at all when playing games. It's easy on even older hardware and can cover up alot of the flaws in the picture with its many filters. (Although at a cost of more CPU demand). You can even hide some of the ugly aliasing of consoles like the PS2.

This is where you can get ahold of Dscaler. http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/ You'll want to download Dscaler 4. If you need any help it has a good amount of documentation and a support community. Although the community can be slow sometimes.

As for hardware you'll need to take a look at http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/c...port/index.htm and find a card that Dscaler supports. You do not need to buy an expensive card. Even a cheapo card will do. Ofcourse, the more expensive card you purchase the more features you'll get.

Personally, I use a Winfast TV2000 which only set me back 30$. It has a NTSC tuner, Composite in, and S-video In.

I really, really suggest getting a card with S-video in. When you use a computer monitor of any sort it is of a much higher definition than your normal TV set. It will show every flaw of the signal. So using composite is going to be a bit ugly. Take advantage of S-video whenever you can.

As for the audio RCA cables you'll either have to get a TV tuner with those as well, get an RCA to mini jack adapter, or a soundcard with RCA inputs for audio. I've got an X-FI with a breakout box so I already had inputs for it. But an adapter should work fine for any PC.

Lastly, here's a picture of what it looks like when playing PS2 through Dscaler on my TV tuner.

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5...415500atx6.jpg

If you need any suggestions for filters, settings, or de-interlacing methods you can just PM me. Or you can just take a quick search of the support forums on the Dscaler site. Which has many threads on using Dscaler for consoles.

I've been asking around for a TV Tuner myself. I recently got a HD Receiver for my new LCD. The results are pretty amazing, but standard def channels look like crap, due to the lack of a built-in tuner. I was told that using a TV Tuner on my PC, then hooking the PC to my LCD would deliver crisp-looking channels.

So I've been trying to find a cheap but effective Tuner to meet these needs. I get cable through coaxial, so I would need a tuner with that port. The PC is then connected to my LCD through a VGA cable.

I'm still not sure how the HD Tuners work though. I pay a subscription for my high def channels (I also get a bunch of extra channels as a result. 5 different HBOs!), so I wonder if I would have to keep paying it if I used an HD Tuner, or would it somehow be free?

Regardless, I would at least like to use it to get better quality normal channels, so please help me out.

All TV tuners come with a coaxial connection. Otherwise they wouldn't be TV tuners. If all you want to do is watch TV then even the cheapest TV tuner will work. Which is normally your bare bones tuner card with coaxial input and nothing extra like composite/S-video in. I'd still go with Dscaler for TV watching too.

Like I said in my previous post, I suggest just taking a look at what cards Dscaler supports. Then pick the card that fits your budget. If you're really anal about quality you can buy tuners based on the chipset they use. But I really don't know too much about the difference between them. So you would have to check the Dscaler forums.

I'm not sure what you're asking in your second question. You have to pay for HD service (depends on your provider) to get HD channels (unless you're pulling them over the air) regardless if you have a HD tuner or not. But you will need a HD tuner to recieve the HD service. Since normal TV tuners cannot.

I have an HD subscription, but I was thinking that if I use the tuner to get the HD channels, then I would only have to pay the subscription fee for the cable service ($5) and not the receiver (an extra $5).

In any rate, I would just like to get my standard channels to be much clearer, because they look pretty awful on my receiver. Also I would like to be able to program and record shows while I'm at it (either with my VCR hooked up or just saved on the PC).

Metal Sphere showed me the following two cards.

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Pro...deo/mdp130.asp

http://www.amdpower.com/sections.php...icle&artid=112

Both seem to have the features that I want, but the first one is a bit pricey, and I can't find the second one for sale anywhere online.