Sabrent TV-PCIRC TV Tuner PCI Card with Remote Control Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)only a few channels worked and were fuzzy,
sound never worked,
remote worked once then never again
cheap product dont buy it

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Streamzap PC Remote Control Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Recently, I replaced the CD Player on my stereo with a full blown PC and use my TV as the "monitor". I had been using a wireless keyboard and MusicMatch software for playing my MP3 files. After a while, I got tired of having to keep the keyboard with me if I wanted to switch tracks, stop playback, pause, etc. I found this little gizmo after a quick search and it does everything I need. The software that comes with it integrates well with the popular music software (MusicMatch, Windows Media Player, Winamp, and many more), and you can even use the remote as a rudimentary mouse. Of course, you can't enter text with it, but if you're using a PC as a stereo component, this remote is great.
You get the remote and a USB infrared receiver. Installation is a snap, and the range is great. StreamZap has said they're considering modifying the software so it would be compatible with other brand remotes, eliminating the need for their remote altogether which would be a nice touch. Until then, I programmed their remote codes into my universal remote and it takes care of everything.

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STREAMZAP PC Infrared REMOTE ACCSCONTROL UP TO 40FT

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Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 PCI TV Tuner with Remote Control (1045) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I wanted to put a TV in my child's play room, which also had a computer. This device enables me to use the computer as a TV. It works great, my 4 year old has no problem using it.
I installed the device in my only PCI slot, hooked my cable coax into it, started my PC, and the drivers automatically loaded. I have XP SP2. The whole process took about 10 minutes. The software then starts and after about 5 minutes, goes through the cable channels to store the channels. Then, you are ready to go.
The unit is equipped with a remote. The remote points to an "eye". The eye is attached to a medium-sized small cord that is attached to the PCI card (under the coax cable). You are able to position the eye where you want it, although the cord the eye is on is not long. If you have a desktop sitting on the floor, it will barely reach the top of a computer desk. I taped the cord just under my keyboard shelf, so the remote needs to be pointed low.
The functionality of the software is great. You can change the channel with the computer or remote. There is a button to enable "full screen" on the computer, but not on the remote. The picture is excellent. The ability to pause live TV, or record ad-hoc or timed works extremely well.
This is a great product.

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Item #: E92725. WinTV-PVR-150 puts TV watching under your control! Watch TV on your PC screen (in a window or full screen), digitally record your TV shows, or pause live TV and create your own instant replay.Create your own Digital Video Recorder! The WinTV-PVR-150 turns your PC into a digital video recorder. Record TV program or home videos to disk, play them back to your PC screen or burn them onto DVD. With data rates from 4.4MBits/sec up to 12Mbits/sec (or as low as 1 Mbit/sec with VCD formats), you decide how much hard disk space your videos will consume. At DVD quality, a typical one hour TV show will take 2 gigabytes of hard disk space.WinTV-PVR includes WinTV-Scheduler and WinTV-Editor. Trim your videos, cut out segments, put them back together, all without losing any video quality with WinTV-Editor! With WinTV-Scheduler, you can control your TV recording on a daily, weekly or random schedule. Automatically record your favorite programs so you'll never miss your TV shows again!WinTV-PVR's pause feature gives you control of what you watch in your WinTV window. Get personal "instant replay" to stop the action when you want to analyze a key scene. Instantly rewind and replay the action again. You're in control with WinTV-PVR!Ever been called to the phone, had to answer the door, or went for a snack and missed part of the big match? With WinTV-PVR, you'll never miss the action again. Just click on WinTV-PVR's "One Touch Pause" button to pause your TV program, click again to continue watching where you left off. Then fast forward to catch up to the live broadcast.Record your TV programs or home videos onto DVD or CD, and play them on your DVD player! If you have a DVD burner in your PC, use the WinTV-PVR's MPEG files with the included Ulead DVD MovieFactory to author your own home DVD's. Turn your TV shows or home videos into DVD movies!WinTV-PVR-150 contains a highly integrated MPEG-1/2 hardware encoder, plus a high quality video digitizer. WinTV-PVR-150 can

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ATI Technologies Inc. 100-703102 TV Wonder VE Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I just got this card from the local Best Buy and I have to admit it is an absolute miracle once you get it to work. I have DirecTV and I wanted a TV tuner so I can watch basketball while I work on the computer or browse the net.
Words of Caution: The TV tuner has only 125 channels and works only with an antenna or you local cable. The TV tuner does NOT work with satellite TV (or digital TV). So I ended up having to buy an additional satellite receiver and then hook up the receiver to the card. The downside to this is that you can't use all of the video scheduling and recording capabilities of the card. The card does give you some very nice TIVO functionalities, but again you can only use them on your local cable or antenna. Once you go through a receiver, you have to select the channels via the receiver while the ATI-TV tuner stays in Channel 3.
Setup: Setup was a little dificult. I have a Vaio with 866 Pentium III, with Intel Graphics Card, running Windows 2000. First you have to upgrade your Windows 2000 to DirecX 8.0 (the one that comes with Windows 2000 is DirecX 7.1). You do that by visiting a special site provided by Microsoft. You download the new upgrade and then install it. I believe if you don't upgrade to DirecX 8.0, you might experience a ton of problems (by the way WinXP comes with DirecX 8.0 installed). Then you have to download the Windows 2000 drivers and TV tuner software from the ATI site, because the CD in the box provides you with drivers for the Win 98 operating system and prior. And then you have to go through the Plug-n-Play wizards and install 4 different ATI drivers. And then you are ready to go.
In Action: Once you get setup the card is fabulous. The picture is great. Especially in the smaller views. The running of the tv picture doesn't interfere with any of your other computer activities. Basically, the cable TV signal goes through the card and onto your monitor like a TV - it doesn't require any system resources at all which is key. You get to go about your business as if you don't have a little TV screen in the lower right hand corner. You can open up a ton of applications and there is no deterioriation in performance. The interface (ATI Media Center) has kind of outdated graphic look and I wish I could put a different skin and I am not sure ATI provides that. You can also expand to full screen view. Just remember to look from far away as you would with a TV. If you look from close up, the picture is grainy. But if you look from say 4 or 5 feet you won't notice a difference. In fact, the picture might be superior to that of your TV.
So right now, I am really loving this card. I can watch TV while I work or if my roomate has taken the TV in the living room, I can watch TV in my room and avoid any stupid little confilcts. It truly has made my life a notch easier. I definitely recommend it to anyone who will be able to overcome the initial setup hassles.

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ATI's TV Wonder VE allows you to watch TV on your PC. Simply install the TV Wonder VE, plug into an antenna or cable jack, and you can surf up to 125 television channels in a window or full screen while you work in other applications.
Included is the ATI Multimedia Center, which enables many advanced features like Channel Preview, which lets you scan through all available stations in seconds, see "what's on" at a glance, and Video Desktop, which lets you display a live TV signal as video wallpaper.
With an Internet connection, you'll have access to GUIDE Plus+ Interactive Program Guide (North America only). Scroll through TV listings while watching the current channel in a window. Search and schedule programs for viewing or recording by title, category (e.g., golf, comedies, drama), actor/performer, or date. You get all this for no monthly fee.
With the TV Wonder VE, you'll be able to digitally record any TV program. Set the time and channel of any program you want to watch and you will be notified when it comes on, or you can have the TV Wonder VE digital VCR record the program to your hard drive so you can watch it later.
The TV Wonder VE is compatible with all graphics sub-systems supporting DirectX overlay, including products from 3Dfx and nVidia.

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Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI-E x1 TV Tuner TV Tuners 1196 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Pros:
One of the lowest cost Hybrid Tuner Cards out there that can do both Analog and Digital Tuning. It works well, can view a clear picture on the computer, smooth, NOT choppy nor freezes. Includes WinTV7 which is needed to watch digital channels (ATSC or clear QAM), Windows Media Center only supports Analog (NTCS) Channels. The card is small (1/2 Height with 1/2 Height headers that can be swapped on) and its PCIe so it will fit a PCIeX1 or PCIeX16 slot.
64Bit supported just as well as 32Bit, running this on Vista Home Premium 64Bit.
Cons:
Does NOT have a MPEG Encoder chip, so no hardware conversion of the Analog signal, your CPU will have to work harder to do a software MPEG conversion. With weaker CPU's that might be a problem, my Athlon X2 6000+ runs at 40%-50% utilization while watching analog channels. I'm pretty sure Digital Channels do NOT need a MPEG Encoder chip, the digital signal is already streamed as MPEG, and watching digital channels my CPU utilization is 15%-30%, more often at the lower end near 15%.
Like mentioned, WinTV7 can crash suddenly, but restarts and runs fine after a crash. Its NOT to often, but enough that its more than a fluke. Runs just as well 64Bit as 32Bit. Remember, you can't watch Digital Channels in Windows Media Center, only analog, you'll need WinTV7 or another 3rd Party Program to watch Digital Channels.
Other:
Windows 7 will support Digital Channels in Windows Media Center.
If your cable company offers clear QAM, Comcast in my area has a digital alternative for every analog channel as well, so I can get every channel they offer in digital, then there is NO reason to pay extra for a Tuner Card with a MPEG encoder chip onboard, its NOT needed for Digital Channels. I'm pretty sure its NOT used at all for digital channels.
Remember, this card is PCI"e" NOT PCI, it will NOT fit your PCI slots, its for PCI"e"X1 or even PCI"e"X16 slots.

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The Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 lets you watch, pause and record both digital and analog television on your PC, in a window or full screen. With PVR software you can also record television onto your computer for viewing later without slowing down your computer. Thanks to MPEG-2 encoding, video quality is superb.
Watch High-definition Digital TV on Your Computer The WinTV-HVR-1250 lets you watch ATSC digital TV as well as QAM digital TV and analog cable TV directly on your computer. ATSC digital TV, which typically requires an antenna for reception, is the over-the-air HDTV standard for North America. ATSC broadcasts range in resolution from standard definition up to the high definition 1080i format. (To check the ATSC digital transmissions in your area, input your zip code at titantv.com.)
The WinTV-HVR-1250 also lets you watch and record QAM channels, which are unencrypted digital channels broadcast by your local cable operator. If you don't have access to digital television channels yet, you can also watch regular analog cable television. And with the included remote control, you can control your cable TV or satellite set top box.
In addition to high-definition video, the card also features a dbx-TV stereo decoder for great TV sound. The card has S-Video and stereo audio inputs that allow for connecting VCRs or cable/satellite set top boxes.
Your Own Personal Digital Video Recorder! With the included software, you can easily record TV shows to your hard disk using MPEG-2. Several recording options are available depending on your playback needs; higher quality video requires more disk space. Generally, 5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of ATSC digital TV recordings, and 1.5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of Analog recording using Hauppauge's SoftPVR for Windows XP and Media Center.
With the WinTV-Scheduler software, you can easily schedule the recordings of your favorite television shows daily, weekly, or just once. You can then play back the recordings at your leisure, burn them onto CD or DVD for playback on another computer or your television, or with video editing software (not included), you can even edit the shows. This is great for saving favorite movie clips, clips of your home team's dramatic last-second win, or your favorite player's grand slam.
The Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 plugs into a PCI express X1 or X16 slot, and is compatible with Windows Vista, XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. With XP-MCE and Vista, you can add the WinTV-HVR-1250 as either the primary or secondary TV tuner. The Microsoft Media Center application supports up to two TV tuners so if you have a second tuner in addition to the WinTV-HVR-1250, you can watch one channel while recording another.
What's in the Box WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI Express bus TV tuner, remote control with batteries, remote control receiver cable, WinTV software CD-ROM, quick installation guide, and half-height bracket for use in low-profile chassis.

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