TV tuner

Using windows 7 now. I have $75 free to spend from a referral site online. I’ll sink in the rest needed for a tv tuner card. Can someone link me to a few tv tuner cards (newegg is fine) that would be a good purchase. I guess link to the most economical (that works), and the best.

Who’s your cable provider?

yousillyGoose said:

I was just editing, heh. I have verizon fios. To access any of their good channels (other than 2-49), you need a set top box. I am curious on how you connect their service to a tv tuner card (do I plug in a coaxle from the wall, do I need to plug the coax out from the STB, etc. Thanks

Which is exactly why I asked. You would not be able to access anything other than their standard cable without a decoder box so getting a card based around a TV tuner would be pointless. Since coax cannot carry digital signals in the quality range that you’re going to want I recommend not even bothering with a tuner at this point. You’ll never get the use out of it that you want and to even come close you’d have to spend a good chunk of money. I would wait until someone releases a card that has component or HDMI input.

yousillyGoose said:

ps- it seems like something called “IR Blaster” allows the tuner card to control the set-top-box? Is that the case?

If it’s a universal remote it should be able to. It most likely would not be able to access the more advanced features of the STB.

yousillyGoose said:

What a sad sad day! So you’re saying that plugging the coax into the STB upgrades the signal, and then shooting it into the tuner with a coax is basically downgrading the signal again?

Coax, composite, and s-video can only carry a 480i signal so if you are using any of these from a STB you are only getting a 480i picture.

You must use HDMI, DVI, component, or VGA to get a 720p/1080p picture from the STB.

The primary reason for this is that the signal coming into your STB is has a much higher bandwidth than the one that STB is able to transmit to the TV.

It’s kinda complicated. Just accept you won’t get digital over a coax once it goes through the STB.

about the mention of an IR blaster:

another consideration, if you’re using a service with a set top box. This is pretty old technology I’m talking about, like 5 years or so out of date at least, but some boxes that I am familiar with used some sort of port (typically DB-9 serial or some modification thereof) to connect to another source such that it could control things. Some newer boxes may use USB for this. Pretty much it would send the same information a remote would over the lines direct to the box, and it was useful for a few things. Mostly changing the channel, based on an automated VCR schedule, or to be used by media-capable PCs.

also, hypothetically the IR blaster should be able to transmit any and every signal your remote could, since (I think) it’s a computer-controlled IR emitter (remote controls emit IR pulses, don’t want to get too technical on you, but anyway). You’d pretty much just have to set it up somewhere you could regularly use a remote control, and hope (like a universal remote) that it has the right instructions to operate your box.

Any TV tuner or decoder that does heavy work would have it’s own CPU.