TV tuner options

[chip00]

I am trying to get video from my Comcast DVR to my computer and eventually on my ipod. There is a family computer in my basement (where the DVR is). i was wondering, could i hook up the tv tuner to the computer in the basement, hook the other end up to the DVR, and record a show onto that computer? then send it to my computer 2 floors up? also i want a tv tuner but i am not sure which ones are good. any reccomendations? (looking for USB, under 50$?)

 

[turtile]

There aren't any good USB ones below $50.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116626

I would buy a better tuner (spend more money) and get his one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116625

 

[chip00]

how do I know if its good or bad?

 

[NewCents05]

if you can buy things off ebay get the ATI Tv wonder 2.0 its a sweet usb tv tuner. i owned it before and the program was really easy to use and did alot of things. one of my favorites things about it was desktop tv where you could watch tv on your desktop then on a commercial bring things up that you were doing and work on them till the show comes back on.

 

[turtile]

ATI would be good if their drivers didn't suck. I had one of their TV turners and it causes driver errors in two different computers. Had to send it back since the new drivers caused even more problems.

 

[NewCents05]

meh im not ATI fanboy but it worked fine for me. i just really like the software they had. it did like everything and then some. cept the files it recorded were huuuuge

 

[grego]

I've had my $28 PCI KWorld tuner for about 9 months now and it works like a charm. It's my tv in my dorm, so I use it pretty much every day. Easy to install, relatively easy software to use. You can set it to record at certain times, what format to record in, all sorts of crap. Also comes with a FM tuner. Another great feature is that it has full A/V inputs (left/right audio, composite and s-video), so you can easily use it as a capture card, or just use it to view whatever component you can hook up, such as PS2, xbox, DVD Player, etc. Picture quality is very good, and that's with a non-digital cable signal. Any other inputs should be even better. I'm amazed that it only costs $28.

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815100129

NewCents05: If any tuner didn't let me, "watch tv on your desktop then on a commercial bring things up that you were doing and work on them till the show comes back on," I would be piiiisssed off. Seems like that should be a bare minimum feature...

 

[NewCents05]

yea maybe you didnt catch the part where he said it had to be usb under 50 dollars.

 

[grego]

yea maybe you didnt catch the part where he said it had to be usb under 50 dollars.

Actually, I did. On the other hand, by the time I decided to reply, I definitely had forgotten he wanted USB. I'm so unworthy. Sorry if you were offended by my comment on your tuner. Oh, wait. I'm not.

Anyway... instead of getting pi$$y about little things... my giving him information about a PCI card is perfectly acceptable anyway. Maybe he would LIKE it to be USB for convenience, but would be willing to crack open the side of his case and take the 5 minutes to install it if he knew how much better of a price/quality ratio he could have if he went PCI. Then again, maybe he can't go PCI at all. Oh, well... someone in the future will search TF for "tv tuner" and find this thread. Suppose they would like PCI... problem solved.

 

[NewCents05]

yea or maybe he has a laptop... lets see you try to fit a pci card in a laptop

I dont really trust these unknown brands like kworld or happysausage or whatever it was. ATI is a well known brand. people may not like it because nvidia is better but this isnt really a graphics card so id rather go with a more trusted brand.