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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."

6 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. 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).

  2. 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 MrTaz65 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or sell him something :)

  3. TV tuners by basic0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was interested in TV tuners and PVR software and so forth for a while, but then I realized that being able to watch and record TV on my computer still does nothing to improve the actual content that passes for entertainment on TV.

  4. DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER! by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One aspect of the review mentioned the Indeo codec for one of the devices.

    There was also no mention whatsoever of hardware MPEG2 encoding.

    If it doesn't encode MPEG2 in hardware, it's not worth buying. Period.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  5. 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...