My Queries regarding Tv-Tuner Card. Needs Advice from you.

Yoda · 20-01-2005, 08:45 AM

Hi,

MY PC
-----

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Barton
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
Gigabyte ATI Radeon 9600XT 128 MB
512 MB DDR RAM
Samsung Samtron 55V (15" inches)
Zebronics 500W SMPS
Altec Lansing Speakers
80GB Samsung HDD

I'm Planning to buy a Tv-Tuner Card.

1.) Should I go for a INTERNAL CARD or a EXTERNAL CARD.

For my PC which Type of CARD(Internal or External) Should I buy.

And which type is costlier and whats the difference between the Two Types.

My Budget is between Rs.2000/- to Rs.3000/-

I would like to have following features in my Card...

a.) Good Quality signal Reception

b.) Receive all channels without any Fuss

c.) Fine Tunning.

d.) Record my favourite TV Programs without any FUSS (MPEG 1/2 Capture).

e.) Nicam Stereo

f.) FM Radio

I've some cards in my Mind...

-- Compro VideoMate Tv Gold Plus --> "My choice"

-- Compro VideoMate Tv Gold

-- Compro VideoMate TV

-- Compro VideoMate TV PVR/FM

-- Pinnacle PCTV

-- Pinnacle PCTV Rave

-- Pinnacle PCTV Pro

-- Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe

-- Pinncale PCTV Stereo

-- Pinnacle MediaCenter 100i

-- Mercury Tv Tuner Card

Which are the Cards that are avialable in India.

I would like to know The Price of The above Cards,The Card Warranty and Support,Quality and Service Centre in

India(Bangalore).

a few doubts...

- Is My Local Cable socket that fits my TV will fit any Tv-Tuner Card.

- In Mercury Tv-Tuner Card can I record my Programmes.

- Internal Cards are they inserted in PCI slots

- Should I call my Assembler to Install the Card(Internal or External) or I can install it myself easily.

- In External Card hows the USB 2.0 support card and its price of the below cards.
Any idea about these below EXTERNAL Cards.

* Compro VideoMate Live USB 2.0
* Compro VideoMate Action Series
* Compro VideoMate For You Series
* Compro VideoMate DVB-U2000
* Compro VideoMate DVB-T300
* Pinnacle MediaCenter 100e
* Pinnacle PCTV USB2

- What are the main difference between the Internal and an External Card. Tell me both it's
Advantages and Dis-Advantages.

I've inserted two pics...

Hows this card in the below picture "Compro VideoMate Tv Gold Plus".
Is it available in India and the price of this Card.

In the below picture I've underlined 2 lines saying...

the "Compro VideoMate Tv Gold is a graphic card cum TV-tuner card"

in that case if I buy this card will it be a conflict to my Existing Graphics Card.

Do all Tv-Tuner Cards have graphics card with it.

Sorry for this Long Post.

Thanx in Advance.
Arsenal

grinning_devil · 20-01-2005, 05:10 PM

Hi buddy!!!

go for Internal TV Tuner card !!

Pinnacle PCTV Pro ..my favorite...with best value for money((i guess around 2400))

U can record fav programmes

Yup...internal are for PCI slots

U can easily install the card urself...plug it in..restart the PC,XP will autodetect,install the drivers nd software .. nd ur good to go!!

for me the MAIN ND MOST IMPORTANT difference between internal nd external is PRICE$$$$

" Do all Tv-Tuner Cards have graphics card with it." .. u wrote it the other way round...not all but few graphics cards have TV Tuner built-in!!

Nd dont be sorry for a loong post....was nice to go thru!!!

maverickrohan · 21-01-2005, 02:28 AM

yeah....Pinnacle is the best...but dont know whether it has FM or NO...

Anyways, other ones r compro n Pixelview, and they defy have FM

And yes Internal......

krisjr · 21-01-2005, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maverickrohan

yeah....Pinnacle is the best...but dont know whether it has FM or NO...

Anyways, other ones r compro n Pixelview, and they defy have FM

And yes Internal......

hi,
how is tech com's tuner card.pinnacle is defy costlier but with price comes some goodies.but then every costly thing isnt really worth it.wat u say.is pinnacle really worth it or can others like tech com,videomate compro can be compared in terms of features.The basic req is to(4 me) to capture good quality pics.i dont want to listen FM on it 4sure.wats ur take pal.

Yoda · 21-01-2005, 02:19 PM

In Digit

It has written that the cable wire carries a little electric charge and that depends on the cable operator. and it may cause my pc fried or a fired pc.

it also says that the danger is very minimul but during strom or lightning it may cause my pc fried or fired

or if its a bad time for me the electric charge may cause damage to my pc says the DIGIT

i'm not going to connect the cable 24 hrs but may be 2 to 3 hours a day

is it true what digit is saying, if yes, and how to avoid it.

this has given me some second thoughts whether to buy the tv-tuner card or not

thanx
arsenal.

maverickrohan · 21-01-2005, 03:33 PM

The main diff. between Pinnacle & any other card in the market is that, Pinnacle uses its own custom made Reciever, whereas most of the other cards use Philips recievers.......(thats why they r more costly)...and hence better quality....and also u get Pinnacle capture s/w with the card...which is pretty good.....

Mostly all the cards u get in India r based on the Connexant Chipset.....

As for the PC getting fried due to lightening.........yes its true.....but these conclusions were derived keeping older Antennas in mind....(remember the times when we all got DD1 & 2 using an independent Antenna installed outside our house......)........there rnt many cases of lightening strikes on TVs these days as the coax cable used for CableTV is spread out in such a huge network that even if lightening strikes it, by the time it reaches everyones house the impact is reduced ..........

BUT HEY.........remember the old proverb.........prevention is better than cure.........whenever there is a thunderstorm goin on, just DC everything including ur electrical connections to expensive electronic items

krisjr · 21-01-2005, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maverickrohan

The main diff. between Pinnacle & any other card in the market is that, Pinnacle uses its own custom made Reciever, whereas most of the other cards use Philips recievers.......(thats why they r more costly)...and hence better quality....and also u get Pinnacle capture s/w with the card...which is pretty good.....

Mostly all the cards u get in India r based on the Connexant Chipset.....

As for the PC getting fried due to lightening.........yes its true.....but these conclusions were derived keeping older Antennas in mind....(remember the times when we all got DD1 & 2 using an independent Antenna installed outside our house......)........there rnt many cases of lightening strikes on TVs these days as the coax cable used for CableTV is spread out in such a huge network that even if lightening strikes it, by the time it reaches everyones house the impact is reduced ..........

so mate what do u suggest,as i told my requirement i.e capturing decent quality progs like music videos,some other documentaries(big fan of discovery,history) and an alternative to tv(which is occupied from 8.30-10.30 by the ladies in my family)...So taking the above req into point- should i go for the costlier/better(may be) pinnacle or others(like mercury,tech com,video mate compro)..I am also looking for good after sales service and atleast 1yr warranty.

secondly,to have a tv tuner card- is it mandatory to have higher system specs namely 128mb ram,40gb,win Xp etc etc

reply awaited.
regards
kris

BUT HEY.........remember the old proverb.........prevention is better than cure.........whenever there is a thunderstorm goin on, just DC everything including ur electrical connections to expensive electronic items

maverickrohan · 21-01-2005, 04:19 PM

go for the pinnacle.........very good quality...if u dont want FM

about how to store ur videos.......click on the link in my sig. for further details abt compression n encoding captured stuff....

and ya u do need somewhat decent specs.........not for capturing but for encoding/compression. 8)

dIgItaL_BrAt · 23-01-2005, 02:15 PM

go for the pinnacle card,gr8 picture and sound quality. Decent capturing to MPEG1,MPEG2,DIVx...
It haznt given me any problems or causes for complaint yet.

akshayc · 23-01-2005, 04:03 PM

Pinnacle PCTV Pro is quite a good card, you can even capture tv directly as DivX/ in formats to burn to DVD/ VCD. Only problem with Tv Tuner cards is that the signal strength in your cable line must be good, or else the fag end of the UHF signal band gets all blurry. Also the Remote with PCTV is very good and customisable, so you can turn your PC into a proper home entertainment system akin to the Windows Media Center. you can control almost all apps using the pinnacle remote. Also there are several features like delay, timeshift, watch one channel and record another etcetc.
Have fun channel surfing.