USB TV Tuner Recommendations and Experiences?

Posted by Cliff on Friday July 23, 2004 @09:25AM from the computer+USB-tuner=instant-PVR dept.

grocer asks: "Due to a piano, the living room suddenly has too much furniture and the TV is going upstairs. I just got a Dell Dimension 4600 with DVD (ROM and RW), 17" Flat screen, and the good speakers and it's staying downstairs. The Dell is under warranty and I'm not opening it, so card based solutions are out. I know it has enough power/space (2.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, 60+ gig free) to run MPEG-2 and do PVR, I just can't find a good review/comparison on the web of USB PVR hardware. I've it gotten down to the Adaptec VideOh! DVD Media Center USB 2.0 or the AVerMedia UltraTV USB 300. Any other recommendations for USB tuners? Anybody else move the TV and replace it with a computer?"

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It depends on what you're looking to get by Inominate · 2004-07-23 12:12 · Score: 2, Insightful

For a bottom end, dirt cheap machine, you can't beat the prices that OEM's buy thier parts for. That $300 PC is something thats a lot more difficult to put together without the big bulk orders.

When you're trying to build a high end machine is when things change. Buying the best parts and putting them together yourself will save you lots of money over any pre-built machine. On a high end machine the markup over retail prices is sickening. On top of that you still don't know wether you're getting good parts or cheap OEM boards built with substandard components.