usb tv thing?

Psypher5

Psypher5

Psypher5

Soldato
Joined
11 Jan 2005
Posts
9,961
Location
Birmingham
ok im in halls of residence atm, and watching tv online isnt the future,


my pc is a MITX so noway can i get a pci tv card, so im looking at a usb one?

Whats advisable to get, futureproof (i dont know!...), best software, best spec etc etc.
 
I got a hauppage nova-t usb stick for my gf when she was at uni. If you have windows home premium you get mediacentre which is an excellent integrated app for watching and recording tv. Think poor mans sky plus and you are on the right lines, the stick came with software but MCE is much better

Hope this helps
 
never thought about mce, got it in my version of win 7 :) will look into that! taa.

Now just for hardware!

whats good, whats upcoming? Ideally freeview would be nice, freesat wont be able will it (with the newer dvb-t2 thing?)
 
I bought my usb tv tuner about 2 years ago ( a pinaccle one).

When i first installed it on xp, was using the built in app. Switched to vista 64 and the app didnt work so used mce. Now on win 7 still using mce and its really good. Definatly recommend it. Not sure on the hardware side of it however.
 
I have a pci card (hauppauge nova-t) and i bought the usb one for my gf as at the time she had a laptop.

There is zero difference in picture quality between the two. I would argue that the usb is more useful as she now has it on a desktop rig since the laptop died. Although i think the pci has a hardware decoder whilst the usb uses software so works the cpu a lil more.

I've suggested hauppauge as i know these are MCE compatible and have served me well, i'm sure many other makes are MCE compatible you just need to check before you buy.

*edit* a freesat card is totally different and i doubt you have a sat dish in your halls of res ;p There are new tuners due which give you the HD Freeview channels but when these will land god only knows. I would get a normal freeview one now, you can use multiple tuners in MCE so could add a HD freeview one later. This means you could record one channel whilst watching another or record two channels at the same time and also have the HD (providing its broadcasting in your area)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom