TV on PC

[Ginzburgh]

I currently have a Samsung 19" widescreen flat panel monitor and I am getting a second of the exact same model. When I play MMO's I want to be able to watch TV/Surf the internet on the other monitor. Surfing the internet is easy enough, but the watching TV part I am a little confused about.

In order to watch TV on a PC, do you just need a TV tuner card? I'm assuming I wont get any digital channels because I wont be getting a digital cable box, I'll just be going right from the coaxial wall jack to the TV tuner card so I'll get the basic channels, which still includes like 70 channels. But how do you change channels with no box? Does the TV tuner card come with a program that allows you to change channels with the mouse or something?

[Tikker]

I currently have a Samsung 19" widescreen flat panel monitor and I am getting a second of the exact same model. When I play MMO's I want to be able to watch TV/Surf the internet on the other monitor. Surfing the internet is easy enough, but the watching TV part I am a little confused about.

In order to watch TV on a PC, do you just need a TV tuner card? I'm assuming I wont get any digital channels because I wont be getting a digital cable box, I'll just be going right from the coaxial wall jack to the TV tuner card so I'll get the basic channels, which still includes like 70 channels. But how do you change channels with no box? Does the TV tuner card come with a program that allows you to change channels with the mouse or something?

you can do it a bunch of different ways
most of the decent tuners come with a decent program to watch with, or you can install a HTPC package like media-portal or GBPVR

you can do some neat things with a dual tuner card

for a single card for analog cable, it's pretty hard to go wrong with something like a Hauppauge pvr150. they're cheap, but very good quality. just make sure you get a HARDWARE encoding card (like the hauppauge) and not a some cheapass software card

[Ginzburgh]

By "hardware card" you mean the card that physically goes into the PCI slot with the coaxial jack on the back that the cable plugs into right?

And I was looking at Hauppauge, that seems to be the standard. You can get them for under $100.00.

[Tikker]

By "hardware card" you mean the card that physically goes into the PCI slot with the coaxial jack on the back that the cable plugs into right?

And I was looking at Hauppauge, that seems to be the standard. You can get them for under $100.00.

no, I meant a card that does the encoding via hardware, rather than software (ie the card does all the processing, rather then putting the encoding on your CPU)

You can find the hauppauge pvr150 for under $70 usually
you can get the MCE version for around $100ish

[Naethyn]

I plug the YPBR from my digital cable box to my monitor. I then run an HDMI cable from the cable box to my roomate's big screen. Sound hooked up to the 5.1 Klipsch surround sound. mmmm

The only trouble I've ran into is that the xBox360 runs HDMI and I have to unplug the HDMI from the cable box and connect the 360 to big screen.

[Ginzburgh]

Convincing my fiance to get a second monitor (so I can play wow and watch TV at the same time) was hard enough as it is, there is no way I can convince her to spend an extra $15 a month for another box. So I'll have to deal with the basic cable hookup that comes right from the wall, which will have like 70 channels and that's good enough for me.

[Ginzburgh]

Tikker, from this list, which should I get:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... ge+pvr150+

[Tikker]

Hauppauge 1042 PCI Interface WinTV-PVR 150 MCE FM - Retail (The 2nd one on the list)

all of the ones you listed have the same tuner hardware, just differences on the extra shit included in the box

I've got a couple of these, and know easily a dozen people that have them as well. they're a very well respected card, and there's a ton of 3rd party support for them