Buying a TV Tuner Card

[abhijeet_ghosh]

I am planning on buying a new TV tuner Card for my PC with the following specs:
Intel Pentium 4 2.60C
Intel D865GBF Motherboard
Intel Extreme Graphics 2
256 MB DDR RAM
160 GB Hitachi SATA HDD + Samsung 80 GB PATA HDD
Sony DRU 820A DVD-RAM Drive
Samsung Samtron 55V 15" Monitor
Windows XP Professional SP2

I require a TV Tuner Card with the following features:
1) Good Sound and Picture Quality in Fullscreen mode
2) Ability to record TV shows
3) I must be able to hook up my VCR and Xbox to it and play on my monitor in fullscreen mode and also record videos.
4) Preferably an external TV Tuner so that I don't have to turn on my CPU everytime I wanna watch TV.
5) Must come with a remote.
6) Support for PAL and NTSC formats.

So guys pour in your suggestions.

[shovik]

Before suggesting for a TV Tuner card I must say you that you should upgrade your memory from 256MB to atleast 512MB, the reason behind this is that, when you will use the tuner card you might think of capturing some of the TV program , and to maintain a good speed to performance ratio you should upgrade your memory.
You haven't mentioned your budget, so I am mentioning few from the budget section and few from the high-end section:

Compro Videomate H900 (PCI interface)
Compro Videomate X350 (PCI interface)
Compro VideoMate DVB-T200A (PCI interface)

Pinnacle PCTV 310i/PCI Digital DVB-t (PCI interface)
Pinnacle PCTV 50i Card analogue TV & FM Radio (PCI interface)
Pinnacle PCTV 60E External DVD-T USB2 (Externel USB interface)

Techcom SSD-TV-670 (PCI interface)

The above mentioned cards retail around Rs.1000-Rs.4600.


Regards,
Shovik.

[bukaida]

Pinnacle and pixelview are two very popular good cards.But they are a bit costlier. Digit has compared all the TV tuner card in a past issue(cann't remember the month).If possible go through it.

[abhijeet_ghosh]

Thanks for the suggestion guys. I am planning on buying a PixelView PlayTV 400 USB TV Tuner card. Do you think its a good choice?

[cvvikram]

Hi,

Why dont' u try for Pinnacle Stereo TV Tuner...it is a pretty good TV tuner card and has all feature u have mentioned and it costs u around 2200/-

[abhijeet_ghosh]

The Pinnacle cards support only the PAL format. I need a card with support for both NTSC and PAL, as I want to use it not only to watch TV but to play my Xbox also (which has NTSC output).

[cvvikram]

Originally Posted by abhijeet_ghosh

The Pinnacle cards support only the PAL format. I need a card with support for both NTSC and PAL, as I want to use it not only to watch TV but to play my Xbox also (which has NTSC output).

You are wrong mate the Pinnacle PCTV Stereo card supports NTSC and i am using the NTSC format itself for watching tv in my PC.

You can reconsider the above choice...

[Vyasram]

never by pixelview playtv pro 2

buy the compro videomate pvr, the best performance/price ratio

[royal]

you could also try Pinnacle TV Tuner 100e external USB model

no separate power supply needed,gr8 capture quality...

[Choto Cheeta]

I have one question... above menstion TV tuner card... whether they r able to make any PC Windows XP Media Center compatable??

[abhijeet_ghosh]

@cvvikram: Did you buy the Pinnacle card in India? You stated that you are using NTSC format for watching TV. The TV system in India is PAL and Pinnacle sells is PAL cards in India and NTSC cards in USA and other countries. Atleast that is what's mentioned on their website.

[cvvikram]

Originally Posted by abhijeet_ghosh

@cvvikram: Did you buy the Pinnacle card in India? You stated that you are using NTSC format for watching TV. The TV system in India is PAL and Pinnacle sells is PAL cards in India and NTSC cards in USA and other countries. Atleast that is what's mentioned on their website.

Yup i purchased the pinnacle tv tuner card in india itself....
But for your information, the NSTC format can be used to scan the cable and recieve maximum channels when compared to PAL. I did the same and i getting around 60 channels.