TV Tuner for PC to watch/record TV on PC?

[bigred]

Anyone do this? What kind of channels can/can't you get ie does this buy you anything more than what you'd get normally (ie not needing cable service) - I suspect not but figured it can't hurt to ask the experts :cool:

[Apollyon]

Things are changing on the TV tuner card front. In the past they were only good for OTA (over-the-air) signals because they didn't have the capability to decrypt cable signals. There are new cards already out or coming out that can function with your cable system, though some require a CableCard to function properly, which must be purchased or rented through your cable company.

Is there an advantage to having such a setup? Yes. It can save you the monthly fees required for DVRs from Tivo, ReplayTV, or one rented through your cable company. Most record programs in a standard MPEG format so you can archive recorded shows to CD or DVD if you desire whereas a DVR rented through your cable company generally doesn't permit that, though you can copy shows from a Tivo or ReplyTV unit with the proper hardware/software. If you have a computer with Windows MCE on your computer and a networked XBOX 360 hooked up to your TV you can stream the recorded shows to your TV as well as watch them on your computer.

[Meffy]

Most of the computers in my little lab/office have ATI All-In-Wonder display cards, which include television tuners. Dunno if it's still bundled but when these were bought, the software in the box included Guide Plus from the company that publishes TV Guide magazine. The same software's built into some televisions, but it needs the higher resolution of a computer display to show a good-sized schedule grid. Using Guide Plus it's easy to set up recordings without programming times and channels. I haven't done this much because television doesn't appeal to me all that much.

[edit] There is no subscription fee for Guide Plus. Data sets are downloaded at night over your cable TV system. Oh, and you get a (fairly easy) entertainment-oriented crossword puzzle every day, IIRC.

[tygirwulf]

I own a TV Tuner, the Hauppage WinTV-PVR 350. I chose this card, because in my research, this and the 250 were the only tuners I found that you could get closed captioning to work with. There are several free PVR (personal video recorder) programs to choose from, as well as a couple you have to pay for. The one I use is GB-PVR, freeware. It's pretty easy to set up and use, though setting up closed caption is a bit of a headache. However, I must say, this was the only program I found that would work, and display captions. Since I'm hearing impaired, it's worth the trouble for me.

I can view all channels that I subscribe to. I don't have any digital cable channels, though, so I don't know how it would work if a cable box was required. Reception is pretty good on all channels except ESPN. I don't know why that is, as ESPN looks fine on the TV. Video recordings look as good as can be expected, considering I'm viewing broadcast quality TV on a high resolution LCD computer monitor. If you'd like to see a screencap, click here (http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/tygirwulf/dirtyface.jpg)(I thought the guy's expression was funny). The original recording is at 740x480 resolution, and it was blown up to the full res of my monitor before I screencapped it.

GB-PVR comes with something called EPG, which must be signed up for, but it's a free service that shows your TV listings in TV Guide-like format. Recording a show is as simple as double clicking the program listing and choosing "record." You can also set it to record every instance of a program on a channel, good for set it and forget it season recording of your favorite shows.

Hauppage cards are generally considered among the best you can buy. They're not often sold in stores, at least, not where I live. You can buy tuners that hooked up to your computer via a USB port, but the internal tuners are your best bet in terms of video quality.

Now, I hardly watched TV in the past, because I hate watching shows on someone else's schedule, and because most shows are crap, but my tuner and PVR program make it easy for me to record shows at my leisure and peruse them later. There's even a free utility that you can set to run during/after recording, that filters out commercials, so that when you use the program to watch the recordings, the program will automatically skip ahead of the commercials. It's not perfect, but makes watching the recordings a lot less annoying.

I'm still a noob at all this tv tuner business, but if you have any questions, ask, and I shall do my best to answer.

[Starthinker]

I had a tv-tuner card back in the early-90s that accepted a coax cable so I could see any channel my TV could. Big ISA monster. They're not new. I could also pick up the one broadcast station in range if instead of a cable I just put in a piece of wire to act as an antenna.

[kalen]

Would it be safe to say that anything your TV could get your capture card could ge? It's an NTSC signal, no?

If there is anything about the European standards (PAL?) and Linux information-wise, I'd appreciate knowing about it.

[scribble]

I run MythTV.
http://mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures

I use a Hauppauge 150 for all my TV viewing.
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr150.html

Here's how I get my channel listings for free:
http://labs.zap2it.com

I get full basic cable, but not digital cable channels. I believe digital-capable cards are available.

This method has some severe advantages over buying a ready-built PVR, and some disadvatages.

The downside is, you probably need some knowledge of linux.

The upside is, you can do really cool stuff you can't do with other PVRs... like use VLC to transcode your videos on the fly, allowing you to stream your live and recorded TV to your office computer, or cellphone. Or something more immediately practical: MythTV is the only "PVR" I know of with automatic commercial detection and removal. TiVo will let you fast forward. MythTV will cut the commercials right out.

[Meffy]

I used to use a Hauppauge. It too did a decent job of video capture. Like the ATI cards it wasn't bought to be used for television viewing but since it was there... well. :-)

[Ripley Twenty-Nine]

This is one of my specialties, so I can help with any specific questions you have.

As my primary TV, I am running a Windows Media Center PC, using analog cable. If you already have a cable subscription, then it's a matter of simply plugging the coax into a TV tuner card. Any TV Tuner software will recognize your cable signal, and be able to switch channels through software. In my opinion it's the best way to watch and record TV. Most TV Tuner video cards will come with this type of software, which also has Guide listings specific to your cable provider in your area.

There is also Free-To-Air TV Cards, which WOULD allow to you watch tonnes of channels for free without having to pay for them, but this setup becomes very complex very quickly.

[opqdan]

I run MythTV.
http://mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures

I use a Hauppauge 150 for all my TV viewing.
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr150.html

Here's how I get my channel listings for free:
http://labs.zap2it.com

I get full basic cable, but not digital cable channels. I believe digital-capable cards are available.

This method has some severe advantages over buying a ready-built PVR, and some disadvatages.

The downside is, you probably need some knowledge of linux.

The upside is, you can do really cool stuff you can't do with other PVRs... like use VLC to transcode your videos on the fly, allowing you to stream your live and recorded TV to your office computer, or cellphone. Or something more immediately practical: MythTV is the only "PVR" I know of with automatic commercial detection and removal. TiVo will let you fast forward. MythTV will cut the commercials right out.

Same exact setup I have (Gentoo Linux. MythTV. PVR-150.)

Other than the hardware it is all free (both in price and in freedom to distribute/modify).

I love using MythTV as I can setup a single backend server in my apartment with multiple capture cards, and watch live TV on any computer connected to my network, even wirelessly with a laptop. The program guide is EASY to use and it is simple to setup recordings. Overall, it blows every commercial PVR solution out of the water (Windows MCE included).

[Mouthfire]

Personally, I like the ATI TV Wonder Pro and TV Wonder USB2.0 over the Hauppauge cards (I tried the PVR USB2). Reason? With the Hauppauge, the channel guide doesn't seem very integrated with the software PVR. You can look things up on TitanTV, but you have to go back to the software and set up the record times manually.

With the ATI products, you just look it up on GuideTV, click on it, and you're set.

Also, if you're interested, there is a free place-shifting application called Orb (www.orb.com). It'll let you send the TV signal (as well as music and picture files) over the internet so you can watch it on a laptop/PPC/mobile phone away from home.

The Hauppauge cards are apparently supported, but I couldn't get them to work. Supposedly you need a specific set of old drivers. The ATI cards, however, work correctly "out-of-the-box".

[Meffy]

One warning with regards to the ATI cards and Guide Plus software: I had a heck of a time getting my Guide Plus to run. Finally found you had to delete any extra copies of some file that has to do with Borland's old "Paradox" database engine. After doing that it ran like a charm.

If anyone else runs into this problem let me know via PM and I'll try to find the info on which files need to be deleted.

[Ripley Twenty-Nine]

Same exact setup I have (Gentoo Linux. MythTV. PVR-150.)

Other than the hardware it is all free (both in price and in freedom to distribute/modify).

I love using MythTV as I can setup a single backend server in my apartment with multiple capture cards, and watch live TV on any computer connected to my network, even wirelessly with a laptop. The program guide is EASY to use and it is simple to setup recordings. Overall, it blows every commercial PVR solution out of the water (Windows MCE included).
Interesting. I've never played with MythTV before, but I do run Windows MCE as my primary Home Entertainment system.

I'm interested to hear why MythTV is better than Windows MCE. I'm not implying that it's not by any means, I don't know enough about it. All I know is that having stiched together different programs over the years to build a PC based Home Entertainment system, MCE was an absolute dream when I discovered it.