Need some pimpin advice on a descent tv card.

At the moment I've got some el cheapo job that caused me more trouble than it was really worth.

What I'm now after is something with lots of inputs, able to recieve digital signals including free to air and generaly make the most of my hdtv sharp aquos 20" that I use for my primary display.

I'd really like to be able to hook up my consoles to it and get the best picture possible. At the moment my game cube hooked up over composite straight to the tv just looks ugly. I'd probably get an av switcher as well so I can hook most of my equipment up.

Something that comes with a remote would be nice too. So if anyone can give me a suggestions it'd be greatly appreciated. Price limit is looking at about £50.

These are what I'd looked at so far.

1st & 2nd down looked alright, but then I don't really know much about tv cards.

Quote: Originally Posted by z0mbi3 Need some pimpin advice on a descent tv card. At the moment I've got some el cheapo job that caused me more trouble than it was really worth. What I'm now after is something with lots of inputs, able to recieve digital signals including free to air and generaly make the most of my hdtv sharp aquos 20" that I use for my primary display. I'd really like to be able to hook up my consoles to it and get the best picture possible. At the moment my game cube hooked up over composite straight to the tv just looks ugly. I'd probably get an av switcher as well so I can hook most of my equipment up. Something that comes with a remote would be nice too. So if anyone can give me a suggestions it'd be greatly appreciated. Price limit is looking at about £50. These are what I'd looked at so far. 1st & 2nd down looked alright, but then I don't really know much about tv cards.

I don't know what the prices are like across the pond, but take a look at what ATi has to offer. I am going to guess that they're probably going to be quite a bit more (in the way of price, as in like double or nearly double), but I have an ATi All-in-Wonder Radeon (ORIGINAL Radeon) and it works pretty good for TV. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it's a TV. It's made for TV.

http://www.ati.com/products/dtv.html

Find something that meets your needs and your price range.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

I also don't know if Pinnacle has stuff for TV as well. I would think so because they have an entire line up for DV authoring. But check them out as well. I think that pretty much everything else would be wayyyy out of your price league (i.e. not to say that you're cheap, but just financially and practically infeasible solutions for you, what your needs are, and what you want/need to do with them.)

ive been eyeing the HDTV cards from DVICO and plan on trying to get one after this xmas. i think they make europen versions with one or two tuners.
if you dont want to spend that much or dont need HD the stuff from Hauppauge is supposed to be good. i dont really like the ati software which is my only complaint about the ati tuners. there are quite a few dual digital tuner cards on the market now you can choose from but are typically 4 times the price of a cheap analog single.

If you can handle going without the HD over the air; get any of the Hauppauge PVR cards. The -150, -250, and -350 are awesome when used with MythTV software.

I recommend the -250, since it costs less than the 350, but still has hardware mpg encoding, so you can record without any processor strain.

Also, some cards (like the one I have) require a crossover for audio, using a dongle from the back of the card, going into a line-in or microphone-in on your audio card. Near as I can tell, the pvr-series doesn't do this.

Do not buy TV tuner with FM remote item seen on ebay.Its drivers are not digitally signed for windows and does nothing but cause your system to cccCRASH.Jo.

I use Media Center 2005 with the Sapphire Theatrix 550PRO TV card. I'm not sure if it is still made but that is a card I recommend. It has the ATI Theater 550PRO chip. I tried a nVidia and didn't like the quality. I'd say the quality of recordings is 10-15% below TiVO on high quality, but most TV tuner cards seem to have a softer picture as oppposed to sharp/clear images.

Thanks for all the input guys. After much deliberationI think I'm going to hang fire till I get my new flat and then see if I can pick up digital free to air before I go spending. Gonna focus on finding some good 5.1's.