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Most of the cards include some kind of PVR solution, but they are generally inferior to third party solutions.
TV TUNER FOR PC WITH CABLE CARD SOFTWARE
One thing to watch for in choosing a TV tuner card is software compatibility. ATI's TV Wonder Elite provides what I consider the best looking picture in the class.
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The WinTV 250 and WinTV 350 from Hauppauge are both solid choices for hardware encoding. Ideally you want to look for tuners that use hardware encoding, which offloads the recording functionality to the TV tuner, keeping the heavy lifting away from your processor. If you aren't planning to watch or record HDTV, there are at least 100 options. Major metropolitan areas have a wider selection of offerings than small markets. These over-the-air tuners rely on an external antenna to receive HDTV broadcasts, with available programming varying widely depending on where you live. If you have an HDTV, over-the-air HDTV tuner cards provide the only means of viewing and recording HDTV on your computer. Before deciding on a specific TV Tuner, you need to decide how you want to use it. If what you're looking for is an immediate solution for recording shows, you can find a number of reasonably priced options to carry you through the end of the year. CableCARD integrates the digital cable box function into the TV tuner, making everything work seamlessly. The remote functionality is necessary for both changing channels for viewing and using PVR software to record shows. Current TV Tuner solutions require a convoluted wiring scheme to make using a remote control with the TV tuner and cable guide on the computer feasible because you still need a digital cable box in the mix. If you don't have an immediate need for the tuner, my best advice is to wait until CableCARD tuners start shipping around the end of this year. What feature should I be looking for? Will I need to increase the RAM on my system (currently 512 MB)? Mark says, I want to buy a TV tuner card for my home PC.
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