TV Tuner cards

ZH/Franky · Post by **ZH/Franky** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:25 pm

I'm looking for a decent TV tuner card.

Little background:
Electric from plug sockets in the UK (where I live) is 220-240 volts
Electric from plug sockets in the US is 110-120 volts

CAUTION - possible ignorance in what I'm about to say next

The only decent tuners I can find are from the US. I was wondering if I'll still be able to use one from the US.

(Though, I understand that the PSU in a comp will transform the voltage).
So say for example, there is a specific pre-built machine in the UK, then the same one but from the US, they will both have different voltages going to them from the wall, but will the PSU in both, transform that voltage the same.)

Basically, will the voltage differences between these two countries affect my ability to use an american PCI tv tuner card on a machine that runs on a UK power supply, or am I all clear?

Ah, and can anyone here recommend a good tv tuner?
I'm not looking for something flashy and expensive. I just want to play PS1 and PS2 games on my PC, at reasonable quality. (I could use emulators for ps1, but not ps2 because my comp isn't powerful enough; but I'd like to play on the real things).

It needs to have support (I don't care if it's official or unofficial, just that there are decent drivers and whatnot) for both Windows and Linux.
Oh, for Linux it basically needs to support MythTV (I understand that for Windows it will come with software already, and that other programs will also be available).

It needs to have both S-Video and Composite input
and support for both 60hz NTSC and 50hz PAL
Stereo sound (the reason I want a tv tuner is because my crappy TV only has mono sound).
I don't care about TV channels / FM Radio or any crap like that.
Support for 1280x1024 resolution would be nice, but if not, I'll be happy to set my monitor to 800x600 when wanting to use the tuner.

Also, say I was running at 50hz PAL, but the game offered to switch to 60hz NTSC, it would be nice if the tuner would detect that switch and automatically adjust it's video output as necessary.

The ability to record video footage from it would be a bonus, but definitely not a requirement.

And finally, it needs to be cheap. $30/£15 or below. I don't want to spend a bundle on it.

ReRuss · Post by **ReRuss** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:54 pm

Hauppage is decent , I own a USB version , and most are supported in MythTV

It came with WinTV , but it uses the mpeg2 hardware and is not good for games , however some sofftware is fine for games , I personally used MCE if I played a game with it

Havnt tested it with MythTv so I wouldnt know how well it works

As for NTSC/PAL , I wouldnt know , I can configure mine for other countries , but not sure if it'd work

kevman · Post by **kevman** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:11 am

There is no difference between a US PC and a European PC except the power plug.

I could take every PC (including my laptops) I own in the US, ship it over to England, and you could take your power cords, plug in, and go.

Some cheapo power supplies have a 120v/220v switch, but that's pretty rare.

Internally, all the voltages are very different than the wall power, and never more than 12volt. That's what the power supply is there for.

PCI(and PCI-E) is PCI.

ZH/Franky · Post by **ZH/Franky** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:14 am

I know that PCI is. I don't want a PCI-E tuner, just regular PCI.

Thanks for the info anyway. I kinda knew already, but I just needed to verify.

another question:
Out of all the tuners I see; I see S-Video input, and the "yellow" port that the video cable on composite cable would go. But I never see the white port (left audio), or the red port (right audio).

But I see a blue "audio in" port, and a green "audio out" port. Could someone please explain this to me?

Example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage ... l+TV-PCIRC

paulguy · Post by **paulguy** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:39 am

You can use an RCA -> 1/8" stereo jack adapter.

ZH/Franky · Post by **ZH/Franky** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:45 am

Ok, I'm all set.

Thanks for your support guys.

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:54 am

How about using tinyurl.com?

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:57 am

or the board's url tags

declan · Post by **declan** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:08 am

Franky wrote:another question:
Out of all the tuners I see; I see S-Video input, and the "yellow" port that the video cable on composite cable would go. But I never see the white port (left audio), or the red port (right audio).

But I see a blue "audio in" port, and a green "audio out" port. Could someone please explain this to me?

Sure, I'll explain it as best i can.

A lot of capture (or TV tuner) cards simply use the audio input on the sound card (or the MB's built in sound system).

The thing is.... sound cards can do what capture cards do (take an analog signal and make it digital).... only will sound. For this reason the often don't bother putting sound processor in capture cards.

Though, some capture cards do have a sound input, so you will need to configure your software accordingly.

If anyone would like to correct me, please do

ZH/Franky · Post by **ZH/Franky** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:14 pm

Hey, thanks for the further information. But paulguy already mentioned a solution for me.

The cables you get with a ps2; red, white, and yellow.

On Tv tuners:
There's a port for the yellow wire. Yellow is video.
There's no port for the red and white wires. (White - left audio)(red - Right audio). But there is a normal "audio in" port that you'd find on a PC somewhere. Basically, you get an "audio in" cable with the two audio RCA cables (red and white) on the other end of teh audio in cable. And this plugins into the speakers. (I've seen monitors at school that have audio in ports though, and the monmuitors have speakers. I don't have those on my monitor, but on my speakers).

Or am I wrong, paulguy (or anyone else that can answer) most made my decision, and newegg.com, which I've found recently, is proving to be quite awesome).

To paulguy (or anyone else that cab answer:
Oh, the audio cable is usually blue, but I've seen RCA > 1/8 stereo jack converters that are black. I don't have blue cables going into my speakers, but black ones. Are these the ones?

To everyone:
If anything I've said is wrong, please correct me, in detail. I absolute need to know everything, and be 100% correct. This way, I can be totally sure that I don't get the wrong thing.

paulguy · Post by **paulguy** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:21 pm

as long as it fits, color doesn't typically matter, at least for most things. These audio cables are all just simple wires so it doesn't care.

ZH/Franky · Post by **ZH/Franky** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:39 pm

Oh, ok.
thanks.

I will go find one now.