Buying a TV Tuner for my computer...

[generalnmx]

I am seriously thinking of buying a TV Tuner. I do a lot of VHS recording, and it's becoming a bother. And if I could replace my TV, it would be one less viewing screen in my room. I might even be able to use my laptop while at college to view TV at home...

But anyway. I'm trying to decide between the ATI TV Wonder Pro PCI for $100 or ATI All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro 64MB AGP for $144. My current video card is a Geforce 2 MX 200/400 32MB so it could stand an update. I'm worried that the TV Wonder Pro won't give the best results because of problems squeezing so much information through the PCI Bus, but it has some features that the All-In-Wonder doesn't have.

Would the AGP vs PCI really make much of a difference? I'm going for highest viewing resolution possible here.

I think that watching TV while using the computer would be impossible without the TV Wonder Pro, since there'd only be one video card in my computer. That's also another big selling point for the TV Wonder Pro over the All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro. I don't really run high-end games very often, so the Geforce 2 is more then acceptable for now.

Thanks.

 

[Azure]

I am seriously thinking of buying a TV Tuner. I do a lot of VHS recording, and it's becoming a bother. And if I could replace my TV, it would be one less viewing screen in my room. I might even be able to use my laptop while at college to view TV at home...

But anyway. I'm trying to decide between the ATI TV Wonder Pro PCI for $100 or ATI All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro 64MB AGP for $144. My current video card is a Geforce 2 MX 200/400 32MB so it could stand an update. I'm worried that the TV Wonder Pro won't give the best results because of problems squeezing so much information through the PCI Bus, but it has some features that the All-In-Wonder doesn't have.

Would the AGP vs PCI really make much of a difference? I'm going for highest viewing resolution possible here.

I think that watching TV while using the computer would be impossible without the TV Wonder Pro, since there'd only be one video card in my computer. That's also another big selling point for the TV Wonder Pro over the All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro. I don't really run high-end games very often, so the Geforce 2 is more then acceptable for now.

Thanks.

The ATI TV Wonder is way better. You should get it. It's better because cards that are both for graphics and tv tuner do have a good tuner, or at least not a tuner that as good as a tv tuner card. You should get the $100. If you want to get a better graphics card without spending too much, you should get a GeForce 4 Ti4200, from googlegear or newegg.

 

[gearhead23]

I wouldn't get an ati I have a happauge card it works great and all the PVR software I've tried works with it even though it's 5 years old it even worked under linux.
g23

 

[Swiss_Cheeseman]

I have a winfast tv2000 card. Does the job nice, software that comes with it is great.

 

[Twimfy]

I would buy a Geforce 4 MX or Ti for around £50 (or whatever that is in dollars, G4's are pretty cheap on ebay and stuff) and then a seperate TV tuner card for about the same price.

I always think a seperate tuner is a better solution than a combo.

 

[generalnmx]

You're right - keeping the components seperate is probably a good idea.

I've done some more research and it seems WinTV is a better bet, like suggested here. The TV Wonder Pro needs an ATI Radeon card to do capture - something not mentioned anywhere on their site, nor the box itself.

In addition, I've found out there's a good bit of damn good third-party software which is made for the WinTV chipset (BTxxx).