Digital TV Tuner Card

[RyanW2050]

All, I use my poor 22" monitor for all of my computing, xbox360 and movie watching use, so i was thinking i would add a TV tuner to my PC and complete the setup.

While browsing newegg i noticed some differences between the cards..
There are some cheap ones that recieve "NTSC / PAL / SECAM"
Or some $100 cards that recieve "ATSC / ClearQAM / NTSC"
I'm assuming from the price that the ATSC/QAM channels are higher quality.



I was wondering which of these types that the high-def channels were on? What do i need to receive the best channels?

 

[masteryoda34]

www.thegreenbutton.com may help.

 

[RyanW2050]

I was actually just looking at Antennaweb.org and it's saying i need a large, preamped, directional antenna to recieve only a few OTA channels. I guess i won't be buying

 

[mpilchfamily]

All chennels broadcast in digital now and most all of the major networks now broadcast in HD. So any digital tuner is able to receive the HD signal and your TV/Monitor will display it so long as it supports HD. Any antena will be able to receive these signals. But some antena are better then others. An outdoor directinal antena with a signal amp is your best option for quality. But if you have not problem receiving all the known stations with your current antena then they should all come in just fine when you switch to digital. If some are hard to get you may not get them at all on digital.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

I notice you're running Vista Business, so you'll need a TV software. Tuner vendors often include the software, but they're often poorly done. Make sure the tuner you choose is supported by the software you want. And just as important, make sure the software supports ClearQAM or over-the-air ATSC with that specific tuner. I use BeyondTV, and I think it's great. Even though one of my tuners support ClearQAM, that feature is not supported in Media Center or BeyondTV, although I can view ClearQAM with the vendor's software. Hint: It's from Pinnacle, and its software is crap.

Essentially, the Hauppauge line is well supported by BeyondTV including ClearQAM and OTA digital.
You can find more info from www.snapstream.com . They also sell combos with tuner + remote + BeyondTV.

I don't recommend Pinnacle tuners since its software is utter crap.
The software is prone to crashes and freezes, unintuitive timeshifting, bad scheduling & recording, extremely bad EPG.

 

[sswingle]

NTSC tuner is only good if you have cable starting in Feb. For over the air you need ATSC.