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Ruel.Net
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PC-TV Tuner Cards

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FEATURED
PC-TV TUNER CARDS
FOR YOUR PC TV
COMPUTER SYSTEM


Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card

    I also have Creative Lab's Video Blaster Digital VCR card. This is one definite PC-TV product that I am using and very happy with. You can click here to see what I have to say about this card and how you can use this card to build your very own personal video recorder (PVR). The Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR has become a popular TV Tuner card and you will want to check it out. The folks at Creative Labs have been providing great products with all of their "Blaster" products over the years beginning with their now-industry-standard Sound Blaster cards. The Creative Lab's Video Blaster Digital VCR card is one card that I love using and it is one of the cards that I think you should consider getting -- particularlly because the software interface in full-screen mode is so much like what you would expect on regular TV. Also, the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card has a hardware MPEG2 recording encoder and can record in standby background mode while you are doing something else on your PC. You can CLICK HERE to see what I say in great detail about the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card in a how-to-use-it review.

WinTV-PVR 250

MSI TV Anywhere

    A couple other TV Tuner cards with a video recording capability that you may also want to consider are the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 card and the MSI TV Anywhere card. The Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 card and the MSI TV Anywhere card are two cards that I've seen interesting reports about although those two cards do not seem to have the great TV-friendly very Tivo-like interface that the Creative Video Blaster Digital VCR card has. However, I'm personally considering getting the MSI TV Anywhere card and the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 card. According to user reports, the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 card does have a hardware MPEG2 recording encoder, but that the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 apparently does not have a background recording mode. According to the WinTV-PVR manual, the WinTV-PVR has what is called the WinTV-Scheduler which "wakes up" the WinTV software application which, according to the manual, takes about 10 seconds to load before any actual recording begins if you don't leave the application on all the time. The MSI TV Anywhere card does not have a hardware MPEG2 recording encoder but does have a hardware MPEG2 playback decoder and uses third-party software which did not appear to have a background recording mode from my initial tests with an early version of the third-party software. Various user reports confirm that the MSI TV Anywhere card does NOT provide stereo sound.

    Another card worth mentioning is the Leadtek WinFast 2000 XP Expert TV Tuner card. Based on email received by Ruel, this is a popular inexpensive TV Tuner card. It's cheap and comes with easy-to-use software and a simple remote control. You can click here for a page of screenshots that show what the default software that comes with the Leadtek WinFast 2000 XP Expert card looks like.

    For most of these TV Tuners, you will have to open up your PC and insert the card into a PCI slot (or into an ISA slot for ISA-compatible cards) -- that's really not too hard to do and the cards come with instructions. Note: For any TV card, if you see any interference such as static lines or snow on the TV that you can't get rid of by moving either the antenna or the cable wire, then you may want to try using a better grade of cable for connecting to cable TV, satellite TV, or to your antenna. If you use a cheap cable, there may not be enough shielding in the cable to deflect any electronic interference that may be causing the static interference on the TV. If that doesn't work, then you may have to swap the TV card to a different slot away from any other card, such as away from a modem card or away from a video graphics card, that may be causing the interference -- you may have to replace any cheap "winmodem" card in your PC since the "winmodem" may cause interference with some TV cards. One other thing you can try if you are getting interference is attaching a ferrite donut (aka ferrite bead, ferrite ring) onto either or both the power cord for the PC and the power cord for the PC monitor (positioning the ferrite donut as close as possible to the PC, or to the monitor). Once you have the card inserted into a slot inside your PC then you will have to install the software drivers that should be included with the TV Tuner card on a CD. (click here if you're wondering about WinXP drivers1) If you are unsure about how to connect your antenna or cable TV to your PC-TV, click here for some information on connecting your PC-TV to different connections such as to your VCR, DVD player, your antenna, cable TV, digital TV set-top box, etc.

    If you are really too scared to open up your PC and if you have a fast PC, then you may want to consider a USB-compatible TV Tuner. For those Mac folks out there, you may want to consider the ATI Xclaim TV Tuner USB for Mac and the MYTV-2-GO USB TV Tuner for Mac. I've seen a few positive user reviews on the USENET for the Hauppauge WinTV USB and for the MYTV-2-GO, but your results may vary since every PC tends to be different. For any USB-connected TV Tuner, and due to to USB-bandwidth limitations, you may need a fast system and maybe a lot of memory to ensure picture-and-sound synchronization as well as reasonable picture resolution, and you may not want to run any other USB devices at the same time while you are watching TV with the USB-connected TV Tuner. If you have a choice, then you may want to go with a TV Tuner card that you install into a slot inside the PC inside of getting a USB-connected TV Tuner. If you are still unsure about "building" your own PC-TV system -- you are really at minimum installing a single TV Tuner card in your PC -- then you can also click here for more of Ruel's comments about building your own PC-TV system.


    WATCHING TV
    ON YOUR LAPTOP
    OR NOTEBOOK PC

    AverTV MTVCARDBUS PCMCIA TV Tuner Card

    Zurotech TV Tuner Card PCMCIA

    For those folks who have notebook PCs and who also want to watch TV, go check out the AverMedia AVerTV MTVCARDBUS PCMCIA TV Tuner Card and the Zurotech PCMCIA TV Tuner Card which recently became available for laptop and notebook PCs that have a PCMCIA slot. People have been asking for a PCMCIA card for their laptop and notebook PCs and it looks like the Zurotech PCMCIA TV Tuner Card and the AverMedia AVerTV MTVCARDBUS PCMCIA TV Tuner Card are two PCMCIA TV Tuner cards worth checking out.

    Margi TV-To-GO

    Previously, there was the Margi Systems TV-To-GO TV Tuner PC-Card with built-in antenna which is no longer available except maybe on Ebay. I've seen a few positive user reviews on the TV-To-Go where one indicated if you want to do any video captures, then you may need a fast notebook PC with a fast harddrive. Again, since all PCs tend to be different, your results may vary. (Unfortunately, the Margi card is no longer available and has apparently been discontinued. Margi has moved on to concentrate on handheld PDA devices.) For those who are interested, the Sony VAIO notebook PCs have a Giga Pocket Personal Video Recorder option for watching and recording TV on that Sony notebook -- but you have to get the Sony VAIO notebook in order to get that Sony Giga Pocket option.

    One other *NEW* type of TV Tuner card (which do not appear to be in stores yet) for PCs and particularly for Laptops and Notebook PCs is what can be called the USB TV Stick. An example of this is the new LifeView "TV Walker" "Micro TV Tuner" USB TV sticks for digital terrestrial (over-the-air antenna digital) TV.

    USB TV Stick for PCs
    Look for USB TV Sticks like the new LifeView TV Walker
    Micro TV Tuner USB sticks to instantly add TV to your
    laptop, notebook or desktop PC via a USB 2.0 port

    Another example of a USB TV Stick is the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick which you would also insert into a USB 2.0 port and use for watching digital terrestrial (over-the-air antenna digital) broadcast television on your laptop or desktop PC.

    USB TV Stick for PC
    Also look for another USB TV Stick like
    the new Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick for
    use with a laptop or notebook computer.

    USB TV Sticks do not appear to be in regular retail computer stores yet (look for them to first appear in manufacturer's online store sites), but they may become popular among users of laptop PCs and notebook PCs in the near future. However, note that you would generally need to have at least a Pentium 4 and USB 2.0 in your PC to be able to use the new USB TV Sticks. Also, I would expect the cost for a USB TV Stick to be in the initial $100+ (or even around $200) price range because they are so small, so very new, and for digital terrestrial (over-the-air antenna digital) TV.

    SLINGBOX for connecting your home TV to your PC
    SLINGBOX let's you connect your broadband
    internet-connected PC to your TV at home

    Another alternative for Laptop and Notebook PCs is the SLINGBOX which is not really a TV Tuner card, but is a TV networking device for the home that costs about $250 and that you hook up to your home's TV / VCR / DVR / TiVo connection and also hook up to your cable modem (or DSL) connection and where you can use your other internet-connected personal computer elsewhere to watch what you have on the TV at home. So, wherever you are using your other PC elsewhere whether that be using your broadband-internet-wireless-connected laptop somewhere in your home or somewhere else, you can use your laptop to watch local TV shows as seen on your TV at your home.

    Otherwise for people with laptop PCs and notebook PCs, you may want to get an expansion docking station for their laptop or notebook PC where the docking station can take a PCI card like a regular TV Tuner card that you would normally install into a PCI slot inside a desktop PC. For instance, I have an older HP Omnibook 4150 Laptop PC that has a Pentium II CPU and only has a USB 1.1 port. It's still a great laptop that I've installed Windows XP on and have that laptop set up for writing and for wireless wi-fi internet for surfing webpages or for getting online streaming video, but it does not have a Pentium 4 and does not have a USB 2.0 port, and therefore I can't use the latest PCMCIA TV card or the really new USB TV Stick with that older laptop. I normally use that portable laptop for writing and internet surfing -- while I usually have my more powerful main PC-TV system doing all of the TV stuff. However, if I really want TV on that laptop and if I dock that HP Omnibook 4150 Laptop by placing that laptop into an HP expansion docking port that is made for that laptop, then I can install my reliable WinTV-GO card (which only requires a low minimum of a Pentium I  CPU  90Mhz) into a PCI slot in the expansion docking port and then I would have live TV right on the laptop. As another example of using an expansion docking port, every once in a while I would receive email from someone who says he or she is using a TV Tuner card in an expansion docking port with his or her laptop PC to watch TV on the laptop. So, if your laptop is not the latest expensive powerful laptop, then you may want to do a search to find out if you can get an expansion docking port for your particular laptop or notebook PC that can take PCI cards (like a regular cheap TV Tuner card) that you can install into a PCI slot in the expansion docking port.

    (For the folks with desktop PCs, particularly if you are a newbie to all this, you already have PCI slots on the motherboard inside your PCs that you can install a TV Tuner card into. You just have to check to see if you have an empty PCI slot in your PC -- and if you haven't installed any new cards into your desktop PC yet, then the chances are that you most likely have an empty PCI slot in your desktop PC waiting for you to install a TV Tuner card.)


    YOU CAN
    WATCH TV
    ON YOUR PC

    So, get your TV Tuner card, connect a TV antenna or hook up to cable or satellite, run the software set-up for your TV Tuner card, and you will be watching TV on your PC.

    Happy PC-TV Watching!
    Ruel


    P.S. If the links are busy, you may want to bookmark this page and try the links later in the day because the links can get busy. Thanks for visiting and be sure to visit Ruel.Net again!

     

    CLICK HERE IF ASKING ABOUT WATCHING
    MORE THAN 125 CHANNELS FOR THOSE
    WITH DIGITAL CABLE / SATELLITE TV -OR-
    WHY YOU MAY STILL NEED TO USE YOUR
    CABLE TV BOX OR SATELLITE TV BOX
    (Antenna TV watchers don't have to worry about boxes -- good old rabbit-ears antenna TV still works with TV Tuner cards. And most basic cable TV watchers don't have to worry about hooking up a box since many basic cable TV watchers are not required to hook up cable boxes to their TV sets. BUT for those basic cable TV watchers who are required to hook up a cable decoder box to a regular TV set, then those TV watchers may need to hook up the cable decoder box to the TV Tuner card even if those other "basic" cable TV services are for less than 125 channels. GENERAL RULE: IF YOU NEED TO HOOK UP A BOX TO YOUR REGULAR TV SET, THEN YOU MAY NEED TO HOOK UP THE BOX TO YOUR TV TUNER CARD.)

     


 

Can't find the TV card you are looking for?2 Before you send an email
to Ruel (who is the only person -- this is a one-person website -- who
maintains this website), then be sure to dig further inside this website.
Check out the links below and go drill further for more information.

 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT
WHAT RUEL SAYS ABOUT PC-TV

CLICK FOR MORE OF RUEL'S PC-TV LINKS

CLICK IF YOU WANT TO BUILD
YOUR VERY OWN PC-TV PVR

CLICK IF YOU ARE UNSURE
ABOUT BUILDING IT YOURSELF

CLICK IF YOU ARE ASKING
ABOUT ACCESSING MORE
THAN 125 CHANNELS


     

    1  What? Windows not detecting the right software for your card and now you are asking about specific software drivers for using a TV Tuner card with Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP? If the appropriate software drivers are not on your installation CD, then you may want to go to the manufacturer's website of the TV Tuner card you are using and you may most likely find the WinNT, Win2000, and WinXP drivers that you need over there. Please note that not all companies may have WinXP drivers for their TV cards -- so you may want to send email to the manufacturer of your TV card and ask for WinXP drivers. If you still can't find any software at all because your TV Tuner card's manufacturer provides no support or is out-of-business, then you may want to look at some generic software. If you still can't find any software at all and the generic software doesn't work for you, then click here and consider getting a new featured TV Tuner card.

    2  Where are the HDTV Tuner cards??? Why so few HDTV Tuner cards? Click here for a previous comment from Ruel about the limited number of different HDTV Tuner cards.


    NOTICE: Ruel provides many free links seen on these pages. If you buy anything, your purchases would be from a linked third-party website(s). The links are for your convenience since everyone asks for suggestions about products. The products should come with their own guarantees and warranties. As for return policies, the various online vendors who are linked should have return policies -- look at the specific vendor information carefully and decide for yourself what card, device, or other product you may want to get.

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