I would like some help in choosing a TV tuner for my computer. I have read bits and peices everywhere so I will tell you what I want and maybe you could show me some products. Let me know if there are some features I am not thinking about that I may need.

I would like it to be a USB plug.

I would like to watch live tv.

I would like to record live tv.

I would like to take stills of live tv or playback.

I would like to recieve OTA analog signals.

I would like to recieve OTA digital signals.

I would like a remote.

I would like a program guide maybe.

I would like some sort of software to use it in because I don't have Windows Media Center.

Thanks!

TV tuners are not that good. Can't recommend anything.

The OnAir GT USB mobile tuner should do you fine. www.Autumnwave.com or other online retailers.

I have one of these and I use it with my HP Pavillion DV1000 notebook. It works very well. Inside my house, I connect it to my roof antenna for the best reception. Outside my house, the little portable antenna works great. My home is about 21 miles from my local TV broadcast towers.

I can watch and record HD or SD television on the notebook. Or, I make a VGA to VGA connection from my notebook to my 30" wide screen HD ready LCD. Setting the notebook to output to the monitor, I can watch HD television on the LCD panel. Or, I could set it to "Extended desktop" or "Dual Display Clone" to watch TV on the notebook screen or on the LDC panel.

The OnAir GT is powered by the USB port, no external power source is needed. The OnAir Creator is a USB tuner that must have external power.

I hear that the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro USB Stick works well. However, I heard that the software is not so hot. See Tom's Hardware for a review. This particular Pinnacle also gets it power from the USB port.

So, which one of these is better?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6815100145

http://www.autumnwave.com/content/view/30/166/

http://www.autumnwave.com/content/view/24/167/

I don't know anything about the performance of the Kworld unit. It is powered by the USB port. Because of its size, it may not be as portable as its competitors.

As I noted in my previous post, the OnAir GT is USB powered also. It is about the size of a fat PDA, and it comes with a pouch for carrying it and the antenna, or it can fit in a typical notebook case.

The OnAir Creator needs an external power source. The difference between the OnAir GT and the OnAir Creator is that the Creator uses an hardware MPEG encoder for the analog tuner whereas the GT does not.

Note that all of the manufacturers of these ASTC/NSTC tuners recommends against using these units in systems and notebooks with builtin graphics. However, my Pavillion dv1000 uses the Intel Extreme Graphics 2 engine, and does just fine; but, I have 1.5 GB system memory in my Pavillion.

One last note. All of these units have video in: svideo or composite ports. These ports allow you to hook up external video sources like VCRs, camcorders, and cable/satellite set-top-boxes. In other words, you can record video from these other external sources. Moreover, you can watch live cable and satellite TV this way.

Thanks for the help!

Which way is best?

As you will use the USB tuner with a desktop, portability is not an issue.

Accordingly, the OnAir Creator should do you nicely. With the hardware MPEG encoder, you can get good performance out of the analog and digital tuners in the Creator.

I assume that you live within a reasonable distance from your local TV broadcast towers. Antennaweb.org or CheckHD.com

Also, as you will be processing video, you need a pretty good system because video processing, recording, compressing, editing, and burning is heavy lifting for most systems.

Hi Myhousemf,
I provide Tech Support for AutumnWave. I see BruxBox has pretty much covered the essentials about our products. If there is any additional information that would be useful to you, let me know.

I'll try to illustrate how the OnAir GT or Creator meets your needs, based on the questions at the beginning of the thread.

I would like it to be a USB plug.
The OnAir Creator and GT use a USB cable. Your system must have USB 2.0 (The GT is powered by USB, the Creator additionally requires a power adapter.)

I would like to watch live tv.
The included OnAir HDTV Program allows you to watch Digital/Analog TV (for both Over-The-Air and unencrypted Cable)

I would like to record live tv.
With the software, you can record instantly (click [Record] button) or schedule it to record a program in the future.

I would like to take stills of live tv or playback.
Simply press the Spacebar (or assign a remote control key) and you can save a still image in JPG or BMP format. Works for Live TV, or playback of recorded content.

I would like to recieve OTA analog signals.
Both OnAir GT and Creator can do this. The Creator may have a slightly better picture (and use less CPU resources) because of the built-in hardware MPEG2 encoder that BruxBox mentioned earlier.

I would like to recieve OTA digital signals.
Both OnAir GT and Creator perform identically for Digital TV. They both include the latest 5th gen LG chipset.

I would like a remote.
We provide one with both the OnAir GT and Creator.

I would like a program guide maybe.
For OTA Digital TV, we automatically display EPG information sent by broadcasters. (This means you don't even need an Internet connection to watch OTA Digital TV and get EPG info.)

Otherwise, our software (v3.0 or newer) supports TitanTV for all the other inputs.

I would like some sort of software to use it in because I don't have Windows Media Center.
We include the OnAir HDTV Program with the package. No subscription fees. We provide free updates on our website.

Thanks,
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

Dear myhousemf,

I dunno if this reply is too late for you, that you might have bought a card already.

Checkout Kworld's product, though the size of that PCTV is alittle bit bigger, but it's still quite useful it supports good resolution...etc My friends in Taiwan assure me, KWorld is pretty welknown there, and receives quite good feedbacks.

If you haven't gone out and bought a card, I hope you reconsider, I hate to see bash Taiwanese products.

PS
I love my new slick KWorld PlusTV Hybrid Stick 330.

If you want a good tv tuner,then I suggest an all in wonder video card.I've found that because a tuner card goes through the computer system,it actually makes for a lousy picture.By that I mean that an all in wonder card has very good quality picture whereas the pci tuner card has a tendency to be slightly snowy and the colour is off just slightly.As for a usb tuner card,well if you can find them,they are usually quite expensive.I recommend going for the all in wonder.There are several versions including X1800pro.So while you get a good quality picture,you also get a decent performing gaming card.Goodluck.With an all in wonder card,the tuner is part of it and therefore goes straight to the gpu as opposed to going through the pci slot,into memory,and then to the video card.

Dahak

AMD X2-4400+@2.6 TOLEDO
EVGA NF4 SLI MB
2X EVGA 7950GT KO IN SLI
4X 512MB CRUCIAL BALLISTIX DDR500
WD300GIG HD/SAMSUNG 250GIG HD
ACER 22IN WIDESCREEN LCD 1600X1200
THERMALTAKE TOUGHPOWER 850WATT PSU
COOLERMASTER MINI R120
3DMARK05 13,471

I receive around 46 ota ATSC/NTSC channels with my FusionHDTV5 RT Gold. Can't speak about their USB ATSC tuner but would suggest visiting the AVS Forum and seeking input.

Hands down the finest $150 investment I have ever made in my box though it has caused me to spend hundreds of dollars . . . . . purchasing 7 SATA hard drives to store all my captured HD streams!!!

KWorld - - JUNK (resource hawg)
ATI - - JUNK (though not bad for analog)

I don't have a problem with the Autumnwave - except for the nVidia PureVideo Decoder. I pass my ATSC audio through by toslink to my surround receiver for my 5.1 sound.

I use Fusion to play my TP files at HD resolutions. Win media player will play my TP files but converts them to mpeg2. I am concerned that *Big Brothers* Microsoft and nVidia will be continually throwing up DRM roadblocks in the future . . .


Keep the public airwaves FREE . . .