using a pc as a telly

pwd

I want to get a tv tuner card and be able to use the pc as a television, and also be able to make digital recordings of programs. I'm not sure which card to get at all. Does anyone have any advice? I'd like to be able to watch it fullscreen, with the same sort of quality as on a regular tv set (at least).

KdjaCL

yeah its all in the card, get a decent one.

Aldi had a nice USB one that allowed you to record diff channels whilst watching another.

kdjac

snappieT

The Mercury TV Tuner Card from Maplin (www.maplin.co.uk)

I have it. Less than €50 and it comes with a cool creditcard remote control.

pwd

That card seems to have been taken off the market.
How does it compare to a regular telly? What resolution do you use, or is the resolution only applicable to digital recordings?

This one looks good:

http://www.leadtek.com.tw/eng/tv_tuner/overview.asp?lineid=6&pronameid=136

pwd

I bought the Leadtek TV2000 Expert Tuner Card because it gets fantastic reveiws all over the place.

I want to buy a tft monitor too. I found this on the usatoday website:

"Monitor compatibility: Select a TV tuner that has a frequency rate that's as great or greater than your PC's monitor. Frequency rate measures how often the TV tuner card and monitor refresh the image on the screen, measured in hertz or cycles per second. A 75 hertz TV tuner refreshes the image 75 times per second. Most new monitors are compatible with 75 to 85 hertz TV tuners, said Blair Birmingham, a product manager at ATI Technologies, another TV card maker."

Ok, does this mean that it's just a good idea to have a high refresh rate in general, or are there actually problems if your tuner card refresh rate is slower than the monitor? (The card's frequency isn't even on the product spec on the website, so I'm not too inclined to believe there will be any problems if I get a monitor witha higher frequency than the card, but I would like to be sure.)

goin'_to_the_PS

can you view sky one and all the digital channels on it

pwd

No,,,but have a wire hanger aeriel instead of cable.
The tech support guy did say the only problem people hgad reported was with viewing sky on it before me however

(insert name)

Do you have to pay for a tv license?



they're coming to get you

SantaHoe

Do you have to pay for a tv license?

Yes.
I don't have an exact quote, but the legal type thingy™ covers it pretty well with something along the lines of "any device capable of recieving tv signals" or some such.

MrPinK

goin'_to_the_PS wrote:

can you view sky one and all the digital channels on it

You can have the output from your decoder going into the card if you're on digital. All the menu's and channels appear on your monitor exactly as it does on your TV. The only problem is changing channels. If you're sitting there, you just use your decoder remote. If you want the PC to be able to change channels for scheduling recordings though, you'll need an infra-red port on your PC and some remote control emulation software.

kida

I have NTL Broadband coming into the same room as my PC. What woulld be the best way to connect it for TV also. Would I have a splitter at the wall and take the BB and TV from the same point.

cgarvey

SH is right .. a license is technically required for every receiving device (which, AFAIK, includes VCRs, etc.). However in practice, I've never heard of anyone ever being asked about a license for their second TV, let alone VCR. The only thing I'd say is that if you get a Sky/NTL/etc. subscription, they will probably seek at least 1 license for the household (which is fair enough). I know NTL share the name/address details not sure about the other providers. Also, I don't know about the legality of NTL doing that, but they do (or used to until recently, at least)!

HTH