TV on PC, is it worth?

[andreadebiase]

hello to everybody,
soon I will be relocating and i was considering, instead of buying a TV, to buy an ATI TV Wonder VE card and basically use the PC as my only TV source. What do you think? are TV capture cards reliable or just useless gadgets? (consider I watch TV only for news and movies everynow and then! I also have a VCR but I should be able to use it if set between the TV card and the antenna).
thanks for the advice

[Randy_tx]

For the cost of an ATI-All In Wonder Card (about $175) you can get a pretty nice tv set.....your choice http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif As long as you hook the TV card into the antenna correctly...the picture is as nice or even nicer than a TV will be (better Screen on the PC- albiet smaller). There is not a problem with jerkiness or any of that sort of stuff as long as you dont have a ton of other programs running.

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"As hard as a rock & dumb as a brick"...Windows CEMeNT

[hiredgoonz]

Everyone I've seen do this has been impressed with the results (I bought an allinwonder as a second vid card but haven't used it to watch tv yet) the only thing is the difference in price between tvs and monitors...a 19" monitor is at least $200 and as much as $450+...for the same price you can get a much bigger tv...

But if you're happy watching tv on a screen the size of your computer monitor, go for it...

[Paleo Pete]

I've seen TV cards used, the picture is very good, no jerkiness, etc, it's exactly like TV. The one I watched was connected to sattelite.

As stated above, you can get a decent TV for about the same price as a TV card. My opinion is if I want TV, I'll watch a TV (which I do about once every 6 months...). I figure my computer is a computer, the TV is a TV. I'm basically the same about music. I do play CDs on the computer, but if I just want to listen to music, I turn on the stereo. Maybe I'm just old fashioned...

The choice is basically up to you. TV cards do work very well, and cost about the same as a decent TV. Either way, you still have TV...so basically, you have to decide whether you want to open your computer and install another card, then install software to use it, or do you want to set a TV on a stand and turn it on...

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[Icy]

Personally I feel that the TV cards are about as useful as webTV machines or I-opener systems. You'll pay as much for a card to watch TV on a 19 inch monitor as you would for a 27 to 35 inch mid-quality TV. Sure the quality is better but how much can you tell with only two-thirds the viewing area. And on that issue I prefer to have my TV running WHILE I use my computer and with a card you either switch or go one at a time. They eat up space inside your system as well as resources that could be put to far better use elsewhere. To top it all off DVD players are far less expensive with more features in console form than drive form. To use one Without a Tv now we are taking up even more space and resources all because we didn't want a TV.

In their defense I work as a Technical Manager in a World Wide Corporation offering tech support for many Major clients (microsoft, HP, WebTV, ....ect.) and have seen very few problems from these cards. It happens of course (every Barrel has a few bad apples) but far less than say Lucent Modems. They seem to be hot on the market right now also, which may explain the high price for (in my opinion at least) a nearly outdated product and concept. Shortly I predict the price will lower or they will be deemed obsolete like zip drives. Again I think they are well built but only a stylish trend.

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ICY

[andreadebiase]

Thanks guys! I did actually went to buy an ATI TV WONDER VE and so far seem to be great! I`ll see if I get bored of it and switch to the "old box" but so far I can tell only one thing: I have more space now (outside the pc case ofcourse!!!).


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