New video card help

[jlarlee]

Hi I'm looking around at different video cards and have some questions. To use your pc as kind of like a tivo you need a video in correct? Does that mean I need one of those all in one cards? Because editing videos and such isn't something I would use. I'm looking to get a card in the 512 mb range and be a PCI express x16. And also want to be able to get tv going into it. Any advice thoughts would be much appreciated and please excuse my ignorance on this stuff

[CaseyRyback]

to get TV to work on your PC you need some kind of TV tuner card. That could be an all in wonder radeon card, or could be a separate add on card (just make sure you have a free PCI slot).

also video card memory is not as important as other things. Pixel pipelines, clock speed, and memory type are more important in selecting a card

also how much are you willing to spend?

[m6oo]

If you want your PC to function as a DVR then, yes, you need to have some way to get video signals into your PC.

Usually, this means adding a PCI TV tuner card to your PC. This will give you a coax in just like on your TV set.

When picking a tuner card, it is best to pick the software you are going to use to get your DVR functionality and then make sure that the card you get is compatible with that software and that people are getting good results with it.

For example, if you are going to go the Linux route with MythTV, then the ATI all in wonder cards won't work. I think the cards from Hauppauge are generally well regarded.

If you go with SageTV on windows, then I think that there are some packages that are available from them that include both the software and a tuner card. You might save some money going that route.

If you go Windows MCE, you'll have to check to see what hardware people are using.

Also, remember that if you want to watch one thing and record another on your PC, you will need two cards, or a dual-tuner card.

[CokeCola]

If you want to play the newest games on your computer and occasionally watch live TV, the All in Wonder series might be a good way to go. But if you want to use the PC as a DVR, I'd steer away from the AiW and get a separate dedicated tuner card. This is because I have not had good luck getting an AiW to use its tuner while running a game. AiWs have software encoders accelerated by the graphics architecture, so I guess there's a conflict between doing the two things at once. This is based off of my experience with my AiW 9800 Pro, so maybe they fixed this in more recent generations.

Anyway, if you think you'll want to record in the background, I'd recommend a separate card with a hardware encoder. They're less flexible in their recording options, but they won't take away many CPU cycles, so you can game comfortably while they record.