Windows Media Center VISTA Compatible TV card!

[freshseasons]

Hello Forum
I am in urgent need of Windows Media Center ( Vista ) Compatible TVTuner Card.
The card should be available in India and the quality should be Best. WMC Vista compatible meaning Media center should be able to detect it .
Can someone please help me finding out a the card for me ?

[ravi_9793]

I think media center detect all internal TV tuner card.All U need is updated windows.

[Choto Cheeta]

@ravi_9793

Sure ??

I ma having hard time with any Enter / Frontech type Cheap (Rs. 1200/-) cards

Vista wont detect and they dont have Driver at ttheir site for vista !!!

I thing Pinnacle would be a better solution

[ravi_9793]

Originally Posted by Choto Cheeta

@ravi_9793

Sure ??

I ma having hard time with any Enter / Frontech type Cheap (Rs. 1200/-) cards

Vista wont detect and they dont have Driver at ttheir site for vista !!!

I thing Pinnacle would be a better solution

yaa..I have heard that vista media center has some problem related to TV tuner card detection.But with XP media center..I think there is no such issue.

[Choto Cheeta]

Originally Posted by RAVI

yaa..I have heard that vista media center has some problem related to TV tuner card detection

I am confused now

Originally Posted by freshseasons

Hello Forum
I am in urgent need of Windows Media Center ( Vista ) Compatible TVTuner Card.

that dude wants a card for Vista !!!

[gxsaurav]

Pinnacle has a whole range of Windows Vista MCE compatible cards cos in Vista the MCE no longer needs a hardware encoder only card.

Have a look your self at Pinnacle India. It works with the inbuilt MCE application

[ravi_9793]

Originally Posted by Choto Cheeta

I am confused now

Wht I know is..detection of hardware depend on our OS.XP media center edition detect Tv tuner card easily..but there is some issue of compatibility in Vista media center edition. However I am not using vista (//money problem//)..so I cant tell u exactly. But wht needed is updated driver for TV tuner card and updated OS..to be detected in media center.

I may be wrong..plz correct me if I am.

[freshseasons]

Thanks ravi_9793, Chota Cheeta and GX_saurav.
Ravi i think if the card works in Media Center 2005 , Then it will also work in Windows Vista.(As far it goes with most of the reviews on the net, if you can get its software)
Media Center i don't know why seems to have a problem with non-standard cards, or may be they purposely left out certain cards ,as they believe that not having a good card will make the media center experience bad.So they have a site where they specifically ask Manufacturers to submit their TV Tuner Cards.
That is the very reason i wanted to have a comprehensive list of all certified Media Center Cards ( Vista Again )so i can compare them and choose the best.
Anyways thanks GX_Saurav for sa pecific answer.
Is there any card better than Pinnacle Certified for Media Center Vista ?

[gxsaurav]

Originally Posted by freshseasons

Thanks ravi_9793, Chota Cheeta and GX_saurav.
Ravi i think if the card works in Media Center 2005 , Then it will also work in Windows Vista.

Media Center i don't know why seems to have a problem with non-standard cards, or may be they purposely left out certain cards ,as they believe that not having a good card will make the media center experience bad.So they have a site where they specifically ask Manufacturers to submit their TV Tuner Cards.

Windows XP MCE had one specific requirement that the TV Tuner must support hardware encoding for recording Videos, timeshifting, pause etc. When u watch TV on MCE, it also records it in the background so that u can simply pause Live TV, while recording continues in the background. This takes lots of CPU so a hardware encoder in TV tuner was required.

Due to this, it was an OEM only OS. Hauppauge WinTV, & some other MSI TV tuner cards were compatible with this. ATI TV Wonder HD was the first TV Tuner which was XP MCE certified despite of having a software encoder.

With Windows Vista, this isn't the case, All you need is a Vista Certified Driver for the TV tuner card & whether it is hardware or Software based it will work with Vista Media Center. Pinnacle released Vista compatible drivers for there old card which are available on Windows Update. My TV Card works in Vista but due to some other reason ehshell.exe crashes every time I launch Media Center. I am using ChrisTV & in a dier need of Pinnacle TV Center software

The Pinnacle TV Tuner cards I showed are also software based, means they use CPU Power for the recording etc, so unless you have a powerful dual core CPU, forget about direct recording in MCE at high quality.

So far I have not seen any other TV Tuner in India other then Pinnacle which is Vista MC compatible.

Even if the card doesn't work in MCE, don't worry. Pinnacle cards comes bundled with either Pinnacle Media Center or TVCenter so you won't miss anything on Vista as far as TV is concerned. After MCE was released by Microsoft, almost all companies ripped the concept & UI including Pinnacle, Apple, SageTV, Media Portal

Have a look at PCTV Tuner Kit for Windows Vista. This is certified to run in Windows Vista

[freshseasons]

Mere Thanks would be an understatement for such a nice and detailed answer.
Nevertheless, Thank you so much for such a wonderful answer!

I have a Dual Core Proccy with 2 GB ram , XFX 8600GT all overlclocked like there is no tomorrow, so i dont think it will be much problem for software decoding.
But i have a remote kit already .
I just need the TV tuner card from which i can play the darn thing.
I think i will wait a bit , till i can lay my hands on some card which is Vista MCE certified or atleast work in Vista's Media Center..
The Media center remote i have has to take care of the tuner card channels.
Ohh..all just to watch some TV. All but the bane of pressing power button on a normal regular TV.

[gxsaurav]

Originally Posted by freshseasons

I just need the TV tuner card from which i can play the darn thing.

Get the PCTV Tuner Kit for Windows Vista. I told u above, it will work in MCE of Vista with MCE Remote. Now if only I can find a bakra for my existing card, I would have bought it by now

[freshseasons]

Hey which is you existing card ? Why dont you sell your card on this Baazar section?