Will this TV Tuner card be ok for watching TV and saving tv shows?

[spankey]

My kids tv died today. Finally after about 6 years. It was a cheapo tv, but any rate. I was thinking instead of buying them a new TV. Why not buy them a Tuner card for thier PC and try to save programs and such?

I have two questions! First is this card ok? ATI TV WONDER PRO PCI Tuner Card Here is a link to the one I am considering...
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6742297&type=product&productCategoryId=c...=1091099665361

Is this an OK card?

Second, can I save programs and burn them to DVD's? My kids watch alot of spongebob and would love to be able to save thier episodes and have me burn them to DVD.. Or do I need another type of piece of hardware to save them?

I have a capture card in another PC that I can swap out into this one. Do I need to do this? Is there a program that would save the program to a file to be converted or ripped later on?

Thanks for your help and info. You see I have a Best buy gift card with $139 burning a hole in my pocket and I want to be able to do this for them!! Any suggestions!!

Thank you!
Spankey!

[zoobie]

see if you can swap it out first
you can save some shows on your hd
then use your burner
plenty of free programs
sorry
you still have $139

[spankey]

Yeah, if I put the capture card in the pc? How do I get the cable signal to watch tv on the pc without the tuner card? Can you elaborate?

Thanks

[JefeQuickTech]

Can you do it? The answer is a definite...maybe.

How experienced are you at installing cards in the computer and playing with software? How patient are you when on tech support with people who don't likely get paid enough to care if it works or not?

Look at what I've already had to go through, and then ask yourself if that will still be cheaper than a TV. See here: https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1485548

[edDV]

$139 will get you a TV and VCR at Walmart. Best Buy will get you close. A few more bucks get you a standalone DVD recorder instead of a VCR.

The other approach requires hours of frustration, a computer memory, hard drive and cpu upgrade, then a DVD writer and then after all that, you get the realization that an encoding card is what was really needed in the first place.

[FulciLives]

If you want to go the computer route of watching TV and maybe recording some TV for later viewing on DVD etc. I suggest you look at the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250 which is an internal PCI card. Another option would be the Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2 which is much the same but is an external model that hooks up to the computer using a USB 2.0 port.

Both work pretty much the same way in that they do HARDWARE MPEG-2 encoding. As long as you pick the correct "capture properties" you can burn any captures without the need to re-encode anything since you can capture direct to MPEG-2 DVD spec.

Once you get everything set up and working it should be fairly easy to use.

Beware: The Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150 is the most common in retail stores but that model has a lot of issues so please avoiid it. The 250 model can be bought on-line as can the USB2 version. I also know that Circuit City carries the USB2 version if you want to buy retail. Not sure if anyone sells the 250 retail anymore.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman