TV Tuners for Laptops with Vista

[Van DeWald]

Does anyone use a USB TV Tuner for your laptop? Was thinking about adding one of those USB TV Tuner sticks, to catch some TV while out in the field (for news coverage for those big events), or to help pass the time on a long trip home after the chase is over. I know analog signals go away in another 10 months, but most of the sticks will also pick up the digital signals too. Anyone have any recommendations for a Vista Laptop? It's a Core2Duo, 2.0 gHz with 3gb of RAM, so I've got plenty of horsepower.

Van

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

Van,
Your laptop may have the power, but my experience with them is not too good.
The analog signal is pretty good but still jumpy at times.
The Digital signal is only good about 10 - 15 miles out and those signals really pull on the computer's abilities. The best description I can give you is that it reminds me of a satellite signal in a bad storm. The picture sticks and gets very pixelated.
I was running XP with 2 Gig Ram. The TV tuner was a good one and had it's own external antenna. But my experience with it was so bad, I re-boxed it and returned it to the store for a refund.
You may have better experience with the Dual Core, but I still think the 2.0 Ghz will not be enough.
Should you decide to buy one, I would definitely make sure you can return it if it does not perform as you want. I used mine for three weeks in several areas, but as I said, it failed from my perspective. I pretty much wanted one for the same reasons you stated.

 

[J Kinkaid]

If you are going to get one go with the FUSION USB HD tuner it blows the Pinacle crap out of the water

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Doesn't use the USB port, but I have heard good things about these.... http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/prod...AFEED->PRODUCTS&cm_ite=1 PRODUCT&cm_keycode=4

 

[Van DeWald]

Thanks for the input Dennis, it's sounding like from your perspective that a TV Tuner is more problematic than helpful in the field. I have a Hauppage PCI card in my PC box at home, and it works great. But, it has onboard MPEG encoders, taking the load off the actual PC. But, it's also hooked up to cable input, and not relying on OTA signals. A 15 mile range sure wouldn't be helpful in the field, not unless I strap on a TV antenna on the roof of my car.

J and Dustin, thanks for the replies. The idea of a TV tuner sounds great, but realistically, it might not be worth it.

 

[David Drummond]

I am not sure why Dennis isn't getting any more range than that, unless it's the terrain he lives in. Out here were it's relatively flat I have no problem getting a digital signal 40 miles out with just a regular off air antenna.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

David,
Are you referring to receiving signals and using a TV tuner card via laptop like we talked about a couple of months ago?
The one I had and was using was via a laptop with the included small desktop type antenna. I tried this in several different areas, but with basically the same results. My biggest problem was not in so much receiving the signals as the computer being able to handle to it. My older laptop did somewhat worse than the newer one I got from you. I believe from what I found, is that the TV cards are nice and may work OK with the higher capacity and faster computers, but they are the pits on a good normal computer. Plus if you are running any other CPU intensive programs this also affects them.

 

[David Drummond]

House tuners, TV tuners, with external antennas. The computer you run it on isn't going to change the strength of the incoming signal. Do a START>RUN type MSCONFIG and see what all you have starting up when you boot. Chances are there is some resident stuff there you could do without.