Hard question to answer with the information you've given. Do you need
to be able to pause live TV,
Definitely want to be able to capture a video feed to my HD for eventual play back later.

will you be doing video capture for later editing beyond possibly trimming out commercials
Probably not. Would be nice to edit out commercials (especially if there is software to automate this) but I am not interested in altering the actual content.

do you want to receive HD broadcasts
Maybe. But definitely not willing to pay much extra for this yet as I do not currently have a HD feed.

how much are you looking to spend
If I am just getting a tuner, I would like to stay around $50. If I could find an unbelievably good deal on a video plus tuner (that had a solid tuner and a video card better than my current one) for $150 then I would be tempted.

do you foresee a need for a DVI output
Yes. I am planning to get a (probably) Samsung SyncMaster 192 or SyncMaster 213T soon.

do you foresee a need for a second monitor,
Yes. See above and my original message.


do you want to have video in a transparent window
Not sure what this is so I will go with "no" for now on this one.

all of these factor into the decision. There are a bunch of solutions out there, which one is best depends on your needs.
Which is why I am looking for some help from folks like you that know what the viable options are.

Thanks.






"J.Clarke" wrote:

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 17:57:27 GMT
RoamDog wrote:

Need your input. I would like to install a TV tuner in my PC. Should
I get a separate tuner card or a combo video/tuner card. My current
video card is probably good enough to meet my needs but there do seem
to be some good deals on AIW cards this week that would also upgrade
my video.

I use my machine for
60% business apps (MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, MS Money and slightly more
graphic-intensive stuff like MS Visio, Photosuite, Windows Media
Player). 20% strategy games (Galactic Civilizations, Warcraft3, Alpha
Centauri, Rise of Nations, RR Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon) 15% web
surfing and newsgroup reading 03% first-person shooters
01% tools (Norton, Spybot, ZoneAlarm, etc.)
01% tinkering around with learning/using Linux
Obviously, I will be adding watching TV/DVDs to the list after I get
the TV tuner card so the %s might change a bit.

So, as you can see I really do not *need* to have the absolutely
top-of-the-line card. But I do want to get the TV tuner up and
running and want to get the best bang for the buck in the video card
department (which could mean keeping my existing video card, although
the urge to upgrade, even just a little, is strong).

Hard question to answer with the information you've given. Do you need
to be able to pause live TV, will you be doing video capture for later
editing beyond possibly trimming out commercials, do you want to
receive HD broadcasts, how much are you looking to spend, do you
foresee a need for a DVI output, do you foresee a need for a second
monitor, do you want to have video in a transparent window, all of these
factor into the decision. There are a bunch of solutions out there,
which one is best depends on your needs.

As-Is environment:
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X
ViewSonic E790 monitor
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Mobo: ASUS A7V8X REV 1.xx (Bus Clock: 133 MHz)
BIOS: Award Revision 1006 09/13/2002
Windows 98 SE
2 X 256 PC2700 Installed Memory
One Memory Socket is Empty
194.15 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
162.93 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

To-Be environment:
Immediate: Windows XP (already purchased but not yet installed)
Immediate: New TV tuner card (???)
Immediate--Alternatively new video + tuner card (ATI 9600 AIW? or
maybe even ATI 7500 AIW for the tuner and as a backup/second video
card?) Late January: New video card (ATI 9600 or 9700 or ?) if not
already obtained with tuner or wait til next Summer and get the
top-of-the-line -1 generation card then Late January: Second monitor
(probably a Samsung SyncMaster 192 or SyncMaster 213T) Early Spring:
New CPU P4 2.6C or AMD Athlon 64 Early Spring: New mobo (depends on
CPU chosen) Spring/Summer: 2 X 512 PC3200 memory
--
Seeker of Knowledge

To reply to me directly, please replace everything before the @ sign
with just the letters K-n-o-w-l-e-d-g-e-S-e-e-k-e-r (without the
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