I'm ready to buy a new tuner card, but it has to match up

[lostinlodos]

I'll be moving in about a month and I was looking to buy a new TV card for my PC (the capture card I use now is from the 1990s, 1996 to be exact).

I'll have access to full cable, but all I'm really interested is getting the bottom 150 or so channels. I only watch about 5 channels for the most part anyway and all are included in basic and expanded basic cable. Anything beyond that I could ask to use the TV in their room.

Question: What do I need, what's best, and what can do it for less than $100 (or up to $150, if any?)

The connection/service is broadcast in digital cable transmission.

I will also be using the card for capturing video in both PAL and NTSC from a DVD player.

The box will be in another room, and used by other people. I'll be splitting directly off the line (again, I don't care about premium).

It needs to have coax input, AND composite (RCA).
I have a VCR/DVD player that has a built in analogue tuner, so I doubt that will work as a pass-through.

I don't think "capture" is the correct term, I simply want to watch live TV and PAL DVDs on my monitor.

Any advice?

[redwudz]

I would look to the Hauppauge cards. They have a good 'track record.' http://www.hauppauge.com/

[Krispy Kritter]

Of course, if the old card does everything that you want/need, then there is no real reason to upgrade.

[edDV]

What is different about the new cable system?

Are the channels you need available in analog under the basic and extended basic plan? If so, as Kritter says you don't need a new tuner.

[lostinlodos]

Thanks; redwudz. Any sugestion on what is best?
Krispy Kritter/edDV
a) the current card only worked on a single OS I still had installed (XP x32), which I deleted, and no 64-bit drivers are available.
b) the current card is analogue, and will be obsolute in every regard in short order.
c) The cableco does not offer any analogue channels to digital subscribers, they are 100% digital (and have been for some time). The only way to get analogue channels at that point would be to order the sub-basic, (economy) package on my own.
d) the current card can not input or output HDTV
e) the current card does not support PAL format video

.... it's time for a new card. And I want the widest selection of inbound signal support for the lowest price. All it has to do is work reliably and have both 32bit and x64 (vista compatible) drivers. I don't care about much else .

[edDV]

The only digital cable option is clearQAM which usually consists of local broadcast stations and a few unencrypted cable channels (at option of local cable provider).

ClearQAM PC tuners are a subset of the HD tuners out there. All HD tuners for the USA market tune ATSC over the air broadcasts but only a few can also tune cable clearQAM and of those performance is marginal.

Your best short term solution is to rent a cable box if you need the full digital cable lineup.

Some cards with clearQAM capability are the HVR-1600/1800 from Hauppauge, the PCTV HD Ultimate from Pinnacle (ATSC now, clearQAM promised but not delivered).... others can add more and their experiences.


PS: Good luck finding 64bit drivers or PAL support. HD cards are localized to ATSC or DVB regions.

[jman98]

edDV's answer is 100% correct, but it's very likely completely over your head. Are you going to be dealing with only standard definition TV? If so, I'd recommend the Hauppauge PVR-250 or 350 cards. They can be made to capture PAL but you'll need to do some registry hacks as out of the box they don't support this for cards sold in North America. I can send you a link on this, but honestly, capturing DVD output to your PC is foolish. You'd be significantly better off to rip the DVDs, whether they are PAL or NTSC, and deal with them after they are ripped than by capturing them like you propose. Your post is not clear and perhaps you aren't really talking about capturing PAL output, in which case you don't need any registry hacks.

Watching PAL and NTSC DVDs on a PC has nothing to do with a capture card, by the way. PCs don't care about PAL/NTSC issues and will play both, assuming your software DVD player doesn't have any potential region coding issues. The VLC Media Player plays DVDs and ignores all region codes, making it a good choice for people who don't want to purchase something like AnyDVD to play DVDs on a PC from different regions. VLC is also freeware.

[lostinlodos]

edDV: Many thanks, quite useful.

jman98: Thanks also. I mis-posted my intentions in that original post. I have PAL VHS and DVHS tapes and a multi-region-multi-format HVD/HDDVD/BluRay/DVD/DVHS/VHS ...... player HiMeida. I don't, however, have a PAL compatible TV. I need to pass that video into/through the PC. The optical media all outputs fine on the HDMI port which I have plugged into a monitor jack, but the Tape side of the player has it's own outputs, and only uses CoAx and Composite
I play back PAL (R:2 and R:6) DVDs fine in ShowTime on my computer, but it would be nice to watch the tapes every now and then. Maybe with a good TV card I could eventually transfer the old tapes to DVD and HD-DVD as well (optimistic of my time, eh?)

Would I be better just getting a tuner-free card and a cable box, and use the box to change channels and set the card to 3/4 for everything?
I also just found the link (I'm blind to, right) https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards
so that's helping. I guess I'll start at $150 and just scroll back till I find the cheepest one that does it all as an option.