Freeview on tv through pc

[rudeboymcc]

hi. i've got a tv and a pc and i'm using the tv's analogue tuner at the moment.

if i buy a pc card digital freeview thing (pci) and connect my tv to the pc, will the quality be just as good as if i get a seperate freeview box connected to the tv directly?

also, at the moment the quality of the tv when connected to the tv is not great. even when playing movies. do graphics cards vary a lot on the quality of the tv out?

[rudeboymcc]

so noone knows anything about these freeview cards?

[Wolfman]

what cards and PC spec? describe your setup in detail.

direct connection is ALWAYS better.

why not go for the hauppage dec2000T . This would accomplish both of your obectives .. direct TV connection and computer connection. However this card has some drawbacks (TV and computer cannot both be used at the same time, user reviews of the software are somewhat negative).

DEC 2000t users please post your experiences + or - ...

[rudeboymcc]

w3ell i haven';t bought any cards yet. my pc specs are:

xp pro service pack 2
amd athlon 64 2800+
abit K8VSE deluxe
1gig ddr ram

the graphics card at the moment is just a geforce4 mx440 but i was planning to upgrade that if it's necessary.

i want it to be pci though so the haupage thing is not an option although it does what i want.

about the direct connection, i've now found some digital tv pci cards which have an output on them, so i could connect this to the tv so there's nothing between the digital card and the tv. would this be exactly the same quality as a normal standalone digital box?

[Wolfman]

what cards are you considering??
And what rules the dec2000 out besides usb?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
so noone knows anything about these freeview cards? I have three of them.....

Each come with their own software and offer slightly different aproaches to capturing the a/v data stream!

Depending on the size of your monitor, the image quality generally looks good.


Cheers

[rudeboymcc]

why do you say the image quality "genereally looks good"?

surely if it's digital then it should be a near perfect image? and also, i'm actaulyl talking about the quality when it's on the tv (becuase everything looks better on a monitor). the tv is 28" widescreen.

also will the widescreen tv be picked up by these pci cards?

the only thing that rules out the dec2000 is that it's usb.

i had a hauppauge Nova T in mind as i've heard good things about hauppage

[Wolfman]

I considered the dec2000 but two thing ruled it out

1) its only usb1.1 a max tfr of around 4000kbps in real world use. (usb2.0 has been around for three years and they STILL havent updated their product)

2) it cannot be used to watch TV and stream to PC at the same time.

3) it has to be re-booted everytime you change its use from TV to PC... how retro is that?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
why do you say the image quality "genereally looks good"?

surely if it's digital then it should be a near perfect image? and also, i'm actaulyl talking about the quality when it's on the tv (becuase everything looks better on a monitor). the tv is 28" widescreen. As with all video, the image is only as good as the source and the bit-rate it's transmitted at.

I should also say there's no reason why images can't look every bit as good as it would via set-top box!

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
also will the widescreen tv be picked up by these pci cards?Absolutely!


Cheers

[rudeboymcc]

ok, so say if i bought a freeview card which had its own output to a tv. would i be able to view other stuff on the tv, just like it was connected to a dual head graphics card? or is the output just for the freeview tv?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
ok, so say if i bought a freeview card which had its own output to a tv. would i be able to view other stuff on the tv, just like it was connected to a dual head graphics card? or is the output just for the freeview tv? If you can find such a DVB-T (PCI) card, you will only be able to output FreeView TV stations.


Cheers

[rudeboymcc]

found one:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5151122324&fromMakeTrack=true

unless anyone can find anything wrong with it this is the one i've narrowed it down to. it has good connectivity unlike the haupauge ones which only have rf in, and becuase of that i don't have to upgrae my graphics card for the better tv out becuase this card has its own one. what do you think?

[SeeMoreDigital]

I've actually tested this card... (and still got it in it's box). It's a very good card!

However, the s-video and composite video connections you can see are not for output to a TV, they are for inputting devices such as, VCR's camcorders, LaserDisc players etc ;)


Sorry

[rudeboymcc]

yeah, there was no confusion about that. to me it's a good thing that they're inputs becuase most other cards only let you input rf.

you say you';ve tested it, did you connect a tv to the rf out? would you say it's near the quality you get when you connect an external digital box by scart?

[SeeMoreDigital]

I'm afraid the RF output, does not enable you to watch FreeView channels on your TV either.

All it does is allow you to loop your existing RF signal to another device!

The only way you can use this PCI card to view DVB-T channels on your TV, is if you have an graphics card with TV output.


Cheers

[rudeboymcc]

ah, so that';s no good then unless i buy a new graphics card with it. are there any cards which have their own tv out which has the freeview channels on it as well?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
... are there any cards which have their own tv out which has the freeview channels on it as well? Not that I know of... apart from the USB device, previously mentioned. And another for a Mac!


Cheers