Choosing A Computer TV Tuner
If you’re looking for a computer TV tuner, the best place to go to would be the internet. The reason for this is that there will be a lot of tuner cards that will be available, and some of them may be identical but not really. They’re like graphics cards. You’ll see graphics cards by NVidia, for instance, but they can be manufactured by ECS or Palit. The difference would lie in little things that count. For instance, Palit may be a stronger advocate of eco-friendly computer parts while ECS may give you higher performance.
Tuner cards are the same. You can find different ones online, and most of them are new. That’s the only problem with going online – you aren’t going to likely find the simpler and almost obsolete ones where you can get the most savings. Still, if you want quality, you can check out the massive amounts of tuner cards online. One thing you have to do before buying them is to look up different reviews about it.
A lot of websites would review products, albeit with much bias towards them; so you won’t find a lot of good feedback. To counter this, go to forums. You can even ask a question in Yahoo’s “Answers” section, although this can take time to get a reply. Another good place to go to would be “Tom’s Hardware”, although you will need to brush up on your technical knowledge and jargon or just post something that goes along the lines of “I’m not a technical person, use laymen’s terms please”. While this won’t give you results right away, the responses from the forum members will be legit and provide a lot of information.
It’s best to stick to popular video cards if you don’t know what you’re doing. The ATI All in Wonder, for instance, is a very popular card for the “not geeks”. That being said, you might want to purchase the hardware off of the manufacturer’s websites. For instance, if you’re going for the ATI card, purchase a licensed ATI dealer. If you’re not sure about a seller, try to ask some questions about them in forums as well.
If you want to find a computer TV tuner that doesn’t necessarily pack a punch, you can visit your local computer hardware stores and they’ll have it. You might even want to go check them out first to see what cheap items they have and look for them online for an even cheaper price.