I am thinking of getting a TV/Tuner card for my eldest daughters pc to allow viewing of tv on her room via her pc, as she doesnt really have room for a stand-alone tv on a desk, and I dont really want to mount one on brackets on the wall.

Does anyone have any advice on these things, or use one? If so how do they compare to a normal tele, and are they any good?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

Used to have a Hauppage one and it was very good. Obviously restricted to size of monitor for viewing area, but worked well and teletext loaded instantly One thing I would say is get one with a remote, but apart from that sounds ideal for the situation

Chris

If you end up going the Hauppauge route, steer clear of the USB ones as I tried one and took it back in preferance for my 1998 model which is still working perfectly (except for the lack of reception in the room where the pooter is! GRRRR).

Another thing to try once you have it, I found that the DSCALER program produced a better picture quality than the official Hauppauge software, do a search on google... its free and theres also a set of hacked drivers which seem to improve things! Other than that they're a great tool... although it does mean if u have a beer fridge next to the PC you never need to leave the room!

I have a pixelview one and it works fine I think they are only

So how much screen do you lose then? She has a 17"crt monitor....

Cheers for all the help so far BTY

Andy,

You should be able to view TV fullscreen, but just have to remember that the resolution of the monitor is different to the TV signal - so you may end up with the same effect as watching a small video stretched to fullscreen.

I used to have a TV card, and found it excellent for leaving very small, with the "always on top" option on, floating in the corner of the screen while I was on IRC or whatever

Make sure the model you get has drivers for the OS, etc, and read a few online reviews, but they usually work pretty well.

The one I had ended up in a work PC hooked up to a projector, showing the world cup on our office wall, and no one complained about the picture.....

Yup fullscreen is no probs at all I use it to watch films as well and it's fine on a 17" CRT

Cheers guys

Sorry to be the one with a less positive comment but - check on compatability,some cards do not work with some pc chipsets in the past i has trouble getting a hauppage to work on my SiS chips.I would hope this sort of trouble is now overcome but worth asking a few specific questions.Possibly check the makers website

otherwise,once sorted theyare good

marc

Hauppauge and Pinnacle are the best sellers and definately the ones worth a look. I will have a quick look at the ones we have in at work tomorrow and try and recommend one or two for ye.

DJ

Hey Kentish,

I'm on my second ATI All-in-Wonder graphics card, having first had a Rage128 based one and now have a Hercules made ATI Radeon one. It's a combined graphics card, TV card, DVD decoder, Video-in etc., card and I think they're great, minimises hassle, and the Radeon based ones are good 2D/3D cards as well. The ATI drivers and software sometimes a bit fiddly to get used to, but once you've got a stable setup going they're rock solid. The TV image is very clear, and because it's all done on the graphics card, the image is resizable, zoomable and has the "Always on Top" feature as well. Also, a nice feature is the ability to do hard disk recording, like a TiVo, probably not relevant for your daughter, but useful for capturing Fifth Gear when needed

Chaos