Confused about the whole Tv Tuner / capture cards...

[joeschmoe123]

I know this has been discussed before, but i'm just confused by it.

Here's what I have: a Geforce 3 ti 200 with a (dvi?) tv out plug...

here's what i want:
a)a tv in cable jack so i can watch tv on my pc and capture it occasionally...(encoding / decompressing options?)
b)rca jacks (red / yellow / white) so i can use my monitor as a tv to play videogames and such and occasionally capture it...(encoding / decompressing options?)
c)good quality and good software

other things that would be nice but definatley not needed: remote, fm tuner, s-video...

can i get what i *need in one card for say under $100?

[Korndogg]

A:
what you want is a TV-Tuner. i recommend this one:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...ption=tV2000Xp
comes with remote and FM tuner. will let you watch TV, etc..

B:
RCA jacks: Red and White are both audio cables.. yellow is the only video, and you don't need it. with that TV tuner, you will be able to use your monitor as a TV and be able to play games (i asume you mean console, like PS2, Xbox) on it.

C:
the one i recommended is the best i've seen for that price. i've got an ATI Tv wonder, and it blows the big one.

other things:
lucky you, that card comes with everything you want

$55 at newegg.com

[joeschmoe123]

are you suggestion i hook up consoles through an rf adapter or something? because i'd really like to have something with the rca jacks to just plug stuff in like it was a tv.

[russ_watters]

No, you can use rca or s-video to input a console to the tv card. Just don't expect the picture to be better than on a tv.

Another good line of tv cards is the Hauppauge WinTV line. http://www.hauppauge.com/

[Tripitz]

I JUST bought the Leadtek card from newegg. The price is great. I'm not sure how much I like it though. The picture quality is pretty good compared to other cards I've seen, but it definitely seems at least one notch below that of giong straight into the tv. Also, keep in mind that if you are running a satellite setup, you will still need to change the channels on the sat box.

As for recording, last night I recorded a show in VCD format which I burned to CD. I would say that the quality of the VCD is less than that of the VHS recording that I made of the same program. Unless you have a DVD burner to take advantage of the higher recording resolutions (does it matter on a sat feed?) I'm not sure how great the recordings will be for you.

[joeschmoe123]

ok i think i get it...so theres no way to up the quality coming through it? hmmmm

whats the equivalent wintv product to the leadtek one...

any other advice?

[JDC]

there's this program called dscaler that I think deinterlaces your signal, which you could then output to your tv, but I'm not sure how well it works cause I haven't tried it.

[Tripitz]

Originally posted by joeschmoe123
ok i think i get it...so theres no way to up the quality coming through it? hmmmm

whats the equivalent wintv product to the leadtek one...

any other advice?

I've been playing around with other people's videos and the quality of the videos is no different even with other hardware. The problem is 'garbage in garbage out'. A VCD on my HDTV Sony big screen looks like garbage. The DVD quality version of the same episode I downloaded from someone looks much better, but then it requires a DVD writer. The TV tuner looks best in windowed mode on the pc. Obviously any HDTV or a computer screen will only 'double' any bad signals.

[Korndogg]

JDC:
you can deinterlace with the software that comes with that leaktech card, too..


tripitz:
how's the guide with that card?