TV Tuner Card for HTPC
July 14, 2008 · Filed Under Suggested Hardware · Comment
A TV Tuner card allows a television signal to be received by a computer. Most also act as video capture cards, allowing you to record television programs onto your hard disk.
Types of TV CardsThere are 5 main types of TV tuner cards:
- Analogue TV Tuners – These are the cheapest TV cards. They receive analogue broadcasts, and need to encode the data in order to record it.
- Digital TV Tuners – These receive digital broadcasts, which are much better quality then analogue. Since Digital TV is sent as MPEG2, no encoding is necessary to record.
- Hybrid TV Tuners – receive both analogue and digital signals. Most Hybrid Tuners can only act as either an analogue or digital tuner, so you cannot watch digital while recording analogue. This is the best option to get if you don’t know that your house receives digital reception.
- Combo tuners – the same as digital tuners but you can watch digital while recording analogue or vice versa. This is also a good option to get if you don’t know that your house receives digital reception, but generally more expensive and harder to find than a hybrid card.
- Dual Tuners – this has 2 separate digital tuners, so you can record one digital channel while watching another. This is the best option to get if you receive digital signal, as it uses one less expansion slot in your computer than 2 separate cards would. Read more