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External TV Tuners/PVR Devices Tested

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-want-my-pctv dept.

Solomon writes "TV Tuners for the PC have existed for a long time but with the ever increasing popularity of TiVo-like services and the possibility of replicating such features on your Windows PC with little effort and a small investment, tuners have been getting a lot of attention this year. Today there's three-way shootout posted at TechSpot with products from Digistor, Transcend and a very appealing offer from RTV called the VEG that lets you play consoles in your monitor. Although neither of these devices can match TiVo completely, they do give you a very cheap alternative."

5 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Doesn't include the best product by beetle496 · · Score: 3, Informative

    They failed to review the best product available, EyeTV

    --
    I paid the going retail price for a Windows screen reader and got a free Unix computer!
  2. Re:I thought it was unwise - by topham · · Score: 4, Informative

    USB 2.0 has sufficient bandwidth if the device performs onboard encoding. (MPEG2 for instance).

  3. Notes from A MythTV User by drewzhrodague · · Score: 5, Informative

    DO your research FIRST, and just buy a PVR-250 or PVR-350. Friend of mine didn't listen to me, and went and bought himself a cheap $29 tuner card for $180 -- and no MPEG.

    I have an old non-mpeg tuner card, and it works great with MythTV. Dedicate a box to the task. Get a nice TV-Out card that you can live with. Get the remote control, or a longer-range wireless keyboard.

    MythTV blows my mind everytime I use it: KnoppMyth

    --
    Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
    1. Re:Notes from A MythTV User by wizbit · · Score: 3, Informative

      Chipset is similar, I believe. The 250s (and the "Media Center Edition" 250s) add additional inputs - I believe the 150 only has S-Video and a tuner - and a remote on the non-MCE model. The 350 adds its own tv-out (though it's a bit of a pain to get working properly) and can do nice things like re-interlace the tv signal so your set gets the extra niceties like closed-captioning, and better picture quality from what I've heard. The 350 is up around $150-170 if memory serves.

      They're not great gamer cards, btw, so you might be better off looking at an nvidia chipset if you want to play games on your homebrew pvr.

  4. Do it cheaper/better with Linux? by EvilGrin666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Its a shame they didn't compare these products against MythTV. I've been using it quite happily for some time on my Linux box equipped with a Hauppage TV card. I suspect it works out cheaper than the options offered in the article and has comparable features to a tivo...