What TV Card?

[_PD_]

Hi,

I recently got hold of a Dell 2005fpw (cheers Hannibal ), and want to watch TV on it.
I run the monitor at 1680 x 1050, and want the TV image to fill the screen, in high quality so it actually looks like a TV - I don't want a 600 x 480 windowed box or anything.

Will any TV card put the TV to the monitors max res? Would the WinTV express do this? Or do you need to spend loads for that?

I don't need any extra features, such as recording or still frame capture. Just want to watch.

Cheers!

 

[OllyM]

Personally, I would go with a Nebula DigiTV PCI card - I used one before I switched to a Mac, and it worked really well. It's ~£70.

Be warned though, Freeview scaled up to 1680x1050 won't look fantastic. It'll be watchable, but it'll probably look a little blocky.

 

[_PD_]

It's not for freeview (don't have it in this area), just for regular BBC1 through to Channel 5.

So how can a 20" TV show it uber quality? I just want something that looks the same quality as my TV downstairs.

Possible?


Aaaaand! Generally speaking, how much would I need to pay for an aerial for the card? I live in an OK reception area (things like 100% brilliant through main aerial, but portable aerials sometimes have a little bit of fuzz.

 

[Phil99]

I've got 2x Leadtek DTV1000-T cards and they're great. Supplied software is good, it scans the channels very quickly and they work perfectly with Windows Media Centre. Only £35 as well.

Freeview upscaled won't look great, but it's acceptable on here full screen (17" 1280x1024)

Here's a shot from Film4 at full screen on my monitor (black borders chopped off):



edit: just noticed your above post - unless you've got an uber signal to begin with it'll look a fair bit worse than the above shot on analogue TV, it really won't look like it does on a normal CRT TV for a variety of reasons, none of which can really be helped.

 

[Vegeta]

I think you have unrealistic expecatations mate, only way to use the full resolution making it look absolutly great is by SKY HD (and i'm not even sure if they stream upto resolutions of 1680x1050?) and that will most likely cost.
I've just got a nebula digitv that does allow for hd content to be recieved and played, but by the time uk freeview goes HD it'll be more than a few more years yet, and by that time we all probably would have gone to sky freeview as the signal is a lot better and much more channels!

 

[_PD_]

OK. Cheers for that guys, looks like I'll have to lower my expectations! So I guess I'm asking now-

For just watching (no recording etc) regular BBC2 (no digital), would I get a better picture from a £80 card over the £30 WinTV express?

Thanks