Please recommend me a tv tuner/capture card

[sandman887]

Hi,

I need recommendations on a tv tuner card/video capture card for my system.

I have a switchbox for my game systems that has S-video, so I want the card to at least have that, component would be nice if it doesn't raise the price that much, but not required.

I have a VCR that I could use for changing channels, unless there is some advantage to being able to do that on the computer, and I use my Playstation 2 for playing DVDs. Wikipedia says that some tv tuners actually process and convert the video/sound to mpeg4/divx etc. so the processor doesn't have to. Does this mean that it converts them and can save them as files to the file system without having to take the time to convert them myself?

My system specs:
Ubuntu 7.10
Pentium 4 @ 1.6 Ghz
512 MB DDR RAM

What else do you need to know?

Also, what do you guys think of the ATI All in wonder? Or do you recommend a different one? I understand a lot of you guys like the Hauppage 150, but it was discontinued or something. I just want to eliminate my CRT tv since I have a 22 inch LCD monitor.

Thanks.

[Afkpuz]

A few things you should know:

1.) Most, if not all tv tuners for the computer will have a delay built into them. No big deal with cable, because it just buffers a few seconds, then begins to play. However, this latency makes video gaming impossible through a computer, then to a monitor. So, you press the jump button on your controller, then 1.1 seconds later, your character jumps. Not fun at all. I'm not positive, but pretty sure that there are no cards with low enough latency for console gaming.

2.) Yes, tuners with mpeg/divx encoders can do the decoding for you so your cpu doesn't have to. These are for analog tuners. Digital tuners can save the stream straight to HDD, so they don't need encoders. The analog encoders do the file converting for you, but you do need some program that can record tv. Mythtv seems to be the best option right now for that.

3.) I recommend going to newegg and looking at the haupauge tuners. Make sure you check the tuner type. ATSC=digital NTSC=analog
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380047+50001772&name=Hauppauge

4.) I also recommend checking out mythtv. It's like tivo, but free!

5.) If you want to play games on your monitors, they have external tv tuners that don't require a computer. You can just hook them straight up to a monitor. I've used those for gaming and they work great. Just make sure it supports the resolution on your monitor.

[sandman887]

Can I still use external tv tuners for my computer? See I would like to play my systems on my monitor, as well as watch tv on it. Would the same tv tuner that plays my games on my monitor also connect to the computer so I could record shows and sports games so I don't miss them?

I checked out that link to newegg. thanks.

The way I understand it, is an external tv tuner allows you to watch tv and whatever else (games, etc.) on monitors, but could those also allow computers to catch the digital signals to record?

This is kind of confusing since this is the first time I've ever thought about doing this. Being able to catch my system games on my computer is not an absolute must, but if it's possible, it would be kind of cool to catch screenshots to brag to my friends about or use for wallpapers, but the more important thing is to be able to watch tv on my computer and be able to play console games on my monitor, although the actual video game video signals does not have to go through my computer.

Would I have to change the way the cables were plugged in when I wanted to switch between playing games and watching tv on my computer? By that I mean if I'm playing games on my monitor, so the tuner is plugged directly into the monitor. But then I get done and want to watch tv instead, so instead of the output from the tuner going to the monitor, I plug the output from the tuner into the tv instead? Or would these already be able to do that with firewire or something?

Thanks for your patience. I'm a newb at this hardcore multimedia/video stuff. It was never really important to me before.

Sorry if what I typed doesn't make sense. I'm probably confused.

[4Foot]

Sandman:

Much to my sorrow, you will find that MythTV, which is reportedly a great TIVO or in my case, Beyond TV, is incompatible with the ATI All In Wonder line of video cards.

Please check on your own, these things keep changing, I just know that the only thing that I left behind when I finally broke from XP was my Beyond TV DVR capability.

MythTV has a list of compatible cards on their site.

Good luck

4Foot