What is the best TV Tuner Card?

[gujuguy007]

What is the best TV Tuner Card for less than or around $65? I have been eyeing an ATI TV WONDER but are there better ones out there? Where would I be able to get "a best bang for the buck" with a remote? Any links to places with great prices would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[powerMarkymark]

I've got the Leadtek Winfast TV 2000 XP. Works well.

 

[DallasTejas]

I've got the ATI TVWonder PCI. Works pretty well but I'm not happy with the driver support. I had a Radeon 8500LE and always had to run an older version of the Multimedia Center with the tuner. Until recently, it was about 5 versions old. This month a beta version of the MMC for the TVWonder came out that is only 1 version out of date. Unfortunately, this beta version didn't work with my tuner, so Iwent back to a really old version of MMC.

UPDATE - yesterday, I returned my 8500LE and got a GeForce4 ti4200. Deleted all of the ATI drivers and MMC. Installed the Detinator drivers for the new vid card. Reinstalled the latest ATI TVWonder drivers and MMC and it worked like a champ.

To sum up. If you are running a non ATI-video card, the ATI TVWonder should be great.

 

[Mavrick007]

Originally posted by: powerMarkymark
I've got the Leadtek Winfast TV 2000 XP. Works well.

I would also suggest the Leadtek card. It has good driver support for WinXP and lots of extra features not incorporated into ATI's TVWonder. It's a good price at around $60-70 and it comes with FM radio too.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Obviously the exact card for you depends upon your requirements as well as budget. Functionality like teletext implimentation and remote controls vary a lot, serial ports to IR etc. Inputs and outputs are another area where cards differ, some handle MPEG and other only AVI or other file types, also soundcard connectivity varies. You can get radio too, sometimes audio is only mono for TV as well so it is all worth looking into. Drivers were a big area, esp for modern OSs like WinXP, but I would be very surprised if this still proves to be an issue.

I have heard great things about Hauppauge WinTV Primio FM PCI. It has an infra-red programmable remote control, does FM radio in stereo, handles standard RF, composite and s-video, teletext, captures video (AVI only) but sadly lacks MPEG capture. You can get 3rd party sw to capture to MPEG2 but it is obviously nice to have this facility in hw.

I am looking into purchasing a TV card for about £50, and would be very interested in people's opinions and experiences.

 

[MournSanity]

I have an AverTV tuner card. Works pretty well, hooked up my VCR to it and stuff. Only costed $50. But teletext gives me an erroer when I turn it on...

 

[MoMeanMugs]

If you're willing to spend $350 like I did, you can get a really nice TV tuner.

 

[Pospodo]

If you are using XP, do yourself a favor and steer clear of the ATI TV Wonder VE. You certainly wouldn't use the drivers that come with it and the "XP" drivers on the site gave my computer complete hell. I'm pretty sure that the other TV Wonder would be in the same boat, because the only difference is VE = Mono, and the other is Stereo.

 

[gujuguy007]

Thanks. Your responses were helpful...I went ahead and got the Leadtek TV2000 w/remote...I thought it was a good bargain at Newegg for $66 + free shipping.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Pospodo, now that you mention it, I rem hearing similar probs with the ATI PCI TV cards and WinXP, best avoided IMHO.

gujuguy007, let us know how you find the 'Leadtek TV2000 w/remote', esp the remote as thiey vary a lot. I'm hoping to buy a TV card very soon, so any advice and experiences are very welcome.

 

[budgieboo]

I was eyeing the tv wonder card, can it really show video in the desktop constantly while you run other programs? And does the Tvio feature work well. IF so this is awsome. Also how much memorey does it take to run, is it hard to multitask with it?
thanks