ATSC NTSC Hybrid HDTV PCI TV Tuner /Digital Video Recorder Review

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(More customer reviews)Hi, this package is great. I've used TV tuner cards for several years and seen them develop. This card is by far more mature than anything I've used. It's very easy to use, the interface is like a TIVO and the functions are fairly intuitive. Overall, I give it high marks and am satisfied with my purchase.

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Sabrent TV-ATSC Dual ATSC & Digital HDTV and Analog TV Tuner / Video Capture PCI Card with Remote Control Vista Ready Review

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(More customer reviews)I haven't got this thing working yet, but that's part of what drives me to include a warning amongst the rave reviews here. The thing comes in a crudely labeled generic made-in-china box that does not show the name "Sabrent" or any other brand name at all.
There is not one word of documentation. The ports are not marked (not the tiny miniplug, regular miniplug, DIN, coax, none), nor is anything else. The company chose to save maybe 3 cents by using a tiny "mini-CD" (the format some videocameras use) instead of a normal CD for the drivers and (according to the label) an array of software. My CD/DVD drives will not read a mini-CD or even recognize its presence, and I've seen this complaint elsewhere, so it's not just me.
OK, so I went to the Sabrent website for drivers and documentation and software. Ooops, too bad, the page does not list this model at all. I sent them an email using their incredibly cumbersome form, and I'm still waiting for word from them. I will follow up with news if there is any.
Lastly, be warned that Amazon has mislabeled this product. It is NOT a "dual" tuner; it is a HYBRID tuner.

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Pinnacle Systems 8230-10023-51 PCTV HD Card - PCI Review

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(More customer reviews)I got this item off of Woot a few weeks ago, and it's been sitting in the box/clear plastic casing until today. So far (after 3 hours or so), it looks good. The card initially did not like scanning for over-the-air channels without an external antenna, but when I ran out to Best Buy to get one, it was appeased. I've since disconnected the antenna and returned it to Best Buy, and everything seems to be OK. I guess it just wanted an antenna to be present at the get-go, and then it doesn't bother checking again? Maybe I just did a mis-configuration during the initial install; I can't blame the manual on this one, as it was (shockingly enough) well-written and easy to understand. One thing I noted is that scanning for channels is definitely worth the wait for the Best Quality mode. It takes *forever* (especially scanning for over-the-air HD), but you will only get the channels that look good (no fuzzies, for example). If you don't care much, then Quick and Normal are both fast, but Quick obviously won't search as "hard" as the Best Quality and Normal modes will.
The software that comes with the card is OK. It's a bit confusing at first, but a little bit of looking around and playing with it has sufficed for me to learn it. I have managed to get some strange errors when trying to set Favorite Channels; I think a developer somewhere needs to check his code. I had to uninstall/reinstall to fix it (hence the 4-star rating). Recording is good (I've not seen the lack of sound/picture mentioned in a previous review), but it is highly system-dependent. I believe the minimum requirements for HD recording/viewing are a gig of RAM and 2.8 GHz on the processor; I meet the RAM requirements but only have a 2.4 GHz proc, but it still works fine.
The remote is sound...after you connect the receiver to the card. Don't do what I did and expect the remote to work right out of the box (well, after you put in the batteries); it won't do anything, and you might think it's broken. Once the sensor is installed, though, it works great. Being able to channel-surf from the comfort of my computer chair is hard to beat ;)
It's also got a built-in radio tuner for both Internet radio and radio-radio. I know that this isn't a hard thing to do, but it's nice. Sometimes you just want to listen to the radio instead of watch TV, especially when that game you want to follow isn't televised and you have to listen to it over the radio instead. It's a nice touch on the part of Pinnacle.
Overall, I'd recommend this card. I've used products from Pinnacle before and found them wanting, but they seem to have gotten this one right. Not a bad buy!

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Hauppauge 1128 WinTV-HVR-1850 Internal Hybrid TV Tuner/Video Recorder Review

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(More customer reviews)
This is a full height, single slot PCIe X1 board, which means it fit perfectly in the top slot on an nVidia 680i mobo with 2 8800 cards configured in SLI.
The 1800 installed in my Vista 64 Bit system flawlessly despite that the enclosed CD only had drivers for XP. Didn't even need it because Vista installed the drivers from on line automatically. Slick!
Integration with Vista 64 Media Center was automatic.
I'm just hooked up to analog cable and FM so I can't speak about the digital qualities just yet, other than to say the analog picture looks fantastic. Somehow I'm not too worried. The tuner just feels right and solid, not like some funky finicky A*I kludge.
The IR Media Center Remote Control is a real remote control and though some of the buttons are incredibly small I can't complain too much. It comes with batteries and works well with the USB Remote Receiver. Vista 64 installed drivers for this as well. I'm stunned.
And so far very, very happy with this purchase.
Just a heads up, ANTonline shipped me a white box and not a retail package.

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The Hauppauge 1128 WinTV-HVR-1850 includes dual TV tuners to let you watch both digital and analog television on your PC, in a window or full screen. With PVR software and built-in hardware MPEG-2 encoding, you can also record television onto your computer for viewing later without slowing down your computer.
Watch High-definition Digital TV and Listen to FM Radio on Your Computer With dual format TV tuners, the WinTV-HVR-1850 lets you watch ATSC digital TV as well as QAM digital TV and analog cable TV signals. ATSC digital TV, which typically requires an antenna for reception, is the over-the-air HDTV standard for North America. ATSC broadcasts range in resolution from standard definition up to the high definition 1080i format. (To check the ATSC digital transmissions in your area, input your zip code at titantv.com)
The WinTV-HVR-1850 also lets you watch and record clear QAM channels, which are unencrypted digital channels broadcast by your local cable operator. If you don't have access to digital television channels yet, you can also watch regular analog cable television.
In addition to high-definition video, the card also features a dbx-TV stereo decoder for great TV sound. The card has Composite/S-Video and audio inputs that allow for connecting VCRs or cable/satellite set top boxes.
With a built-in FM radio tuner, you can also sit back and listen to top 40 hits or your favorite talk radio while you are working on your latest project.
Your Own Personal Digital Video Recorder With the included software, you can easily record TV shows to your hard disk using MPEG-2. Several recording options are available depending on your playback needs; higher quality video requires more disk space. Generally, 5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of ATCS digital TV recordings. Thanks to the built-in hardware MPEG-2 encoder, your PC continues to run at full speed even while recording.
With the WinTV v7 scheduler, you can easily schedule the recordings of your favorite television shows daily, weekly, or just once. You can then play back the recordings at your leisure, burn them onto CD or DVD for playback on another computer or your television, or with video editing software (not included), you can edit the shows. This is great for saving favorite movie clips, or of your favorite teams dramatic last-second win or your favorite player's grand slam.
Windows Media Center Compatible with Included Remote The Hauppauge 1128 WinTV-HVR-1850 plugs into a PCI-Express x1 or x8 slot, and is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, or Windows XP, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. With Windows 7 and XP-MCE, you can add the WinTV-HVR-1850 as either the primary or secondary TV tuner. Microsoft's Windows Media Center application supports up to two TV tuners so you can watch one channel while recording another.
Included in the package is a Media Center certified remote control that allows you to have all your digital entertainment within easy reach, even while you are lounging on your couch.
What's in the Box WinTV-HVR-1850 PCI-express card, Media Center Remote kit, CD-ROM with WinTV software.

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Sabrent SBT-TVFM TV Tuner/Video Capture/FM Radio PCI Card with Remote Control Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)First of all, the item that is sent will NOT be the item in the picture. However the tuner still works. When I first installed the tuner, it crashed my computer. Apparently the driver did not agree with windows, and the driver recommended by windows will not work with the tuner. Nevertheless, after a few hours of messing with the driver, it eventually worked and it's been working perfectly ever since. By the way, just to clarify about video quality, for normal viewing, it's the best tuner under 30 dollars with a remote. But if you want to record, the video will not be so good, it'll be really fuzzy if you're use to dvd quality videos. And also, it will not work with Media Center (not the OS, but the program), which is quite disappointing. You should buy this only if you have the patience and technical experience to adjust those settings.

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With the Sabrent SBT-TVFM TV Tuner/Video Capture/FM Radio PCI Card with Remote Control, you can watch TV, listen to FM radio, and capture video from your camcorder all on your computer.
Record Your Favorite TV Programs onto Your PC With the built-in TV tuner, you can receive up to 125 channels on cable or over the air. With an autoscan function, clear signals will be added automatically, and you can watch television full-screen on your computer. Video is captured at a steady 30 frames per second for high quality.
A Variety of Inputs The card has composite and S-video inputs for connecting televisions and DVD/VHS players, a connection for an FM antenna, a composite video camera connector for digital camcorders, and an audio out for output of sound to external speakers.
The Sabrent SBT-TVFM TV Tuner/Video Capture/FM Radio PCI Card requires Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP, a 366 Mhz or higher CPU, 32 MB or more RAM, a VGA card with 8 MB memory, an available PCI slot, and an analog TV signal source.
What's in the Box SBT-TVFM TV/FM/video capture PCI card, audio cable, remote I/R receiving cable, remote control, FM antenna, user's manual, and software CD.

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ATI Technologies 100-714127 HD-TV Wonder Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this and hooked it up to my PC. In order to make it work I had to update my graphics card to the latest drivers (I have a NVIDIA GEForce 4 MX 440 with 64 meg of RAM so it is kind of slow compared to what is out there now) and update to the latest Microsoft Direct X drivers (you need to be 9.0 or above).
The manual is strange because even though it is in english and seemingly well written it really doesn't tell you much of what you need to know. I put the card in an unused PCI slot and my windows XP machine found the card and then I updated the drivers. But you also need to install other software or it won't work and that is poorly explained, but finally I managed to find it.
After I got it all installed and found I tried digital HDTV (why I bought it) and it didn't even start up. OK, then I tried analog TV and got that to work so I knew it wasn't the card or anything like that. I stumbled through ATI's poorly designed site and sent their customer service group an email (it was saturday night so I didn't really expect a response right away) and FINALLY I found what I was looking for - updated DTV (digital TV) drivers. I downloaded them, and, voila - it works!
I am in chicago so the channels available aren't so great and they vary by station but I was immediately able to watch the baseball playoffs in hdtv and they looked good!
The antenna that it comes with is not powered and from my looking around at tech sites basically you need a powered antenna. I know that the chicago transmission is all from the hancock or sears towers and I can't really face the antenna the right way due to where the computer is located but the stations come in OK, most of the time. I think you need to buy a powered antenna to make it really work.
It comes with a channel guide that is free but that is geared more towards analog than digital TV. It apparently has TIVO like functionality but I haven't figured that out yet.
ATI puts a docking station on the side of your toolbar which isn't too bad.
The remote is very cool! There is a USB antenna you plug in and then the remote allows you to change channels. You can also use this remote for power point presentations and stuff like that. I like it a lot.
This thing is clearly for early adopters and you have to be willing to fiddle around but for 200 bucks you get:
- analog TV card
- digital TV card
- remote control
- non powered antenna
- TV guide software (free)
- ability to do some tivo like stuff and screen captures, and play it back thru the library
Personally I am trying to setup a cheap HDTV system with a PC, 20 inch flat screen and this card. I want to be able to watch some sports in HDTV but I don't want to spend thousands on a current generation HDTV. This allows you to do this.
Don't kid yourself - this is a first generation product, just like the first generation wireles router I bought, etc... And ATI's customer service and web site have not impressed me - they didn't tell me to get the updated drivers, they said it was an XP problem (wrong!). But anyone who gets a first generation product and expects tech support to fix it is just dreaming, unless you happen to reach the one guy or whatever who knows your product, the rest of the tech staff have a boilerplate response.
I mean - what do you expect for 200 bucks? The TV tuner for analog and remote and antenna cost something, right? And then you get HDTV? This is going to come down some in price but as soon as something breaks the 200 dollar price point I am going to be an early adopter just for grins, and that is what this is.
But I don't recommend this unless 1) you are pretty technical 2) you don't mind fixing it all yourself and figuring it out, including drivers, and you can do this w/ a junky manual and non-intuitive web site 3) you have some time on your hands.
To me that is what I expect from a first generation product that is being priced at a mainstream cost (i.e. less than 200 bucks).
Also - if there aren't many stations broadcasting HDTV in your area than you are basically buying a regular TV tuner which is OK but there is probably a cheaper one out there.

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With the HDTV WONDER you'll enjoy crystal clear HDTV on your current PC monitor with digital audio for a fraction of the price of a HDTV television.HDTV offers over twice the resolution and clarity of DVD's! Experience free-to-air HDTV broadcasts which reach 99% of USA households with the included antenna and save on cable and satellite charges!Plus, you can view both analog and digital TV shows or burn them to CD or DVD and create an entertainment library. The HDTV WONDER is the perfect PC multimedia companion to your Microsoft DirectX 9.0 supported video card

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Pinnacle Pctv Pci Internal Pci Tv Tuner Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Was a gift for a friend, works great and he likes the quality. Perfect for watching a show or game while working on the PC

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