 Adding a TV tuner to your PC opens up a range of possibilities. Most
of the tuners are easy to use but some offer advanced features, so it's
important to consider the options before buying
Internal TV tuners require a free PCI slot, so you'll need to open your
PC to install them. External options are much easier to set up, as they
connect via a spare USB port, which is good for notebooks as well as
desktop PCs.
Although most are backwards compatible with USB1.1, a high-speed USB2
connection is often needed to use advanced features. Today's devices
typically require Windows ME, 2000 or XP. Check specifically for Windows
98 or NT support.
Analogue or digital?
If you plan to watch terrestrial broadcasts, a digital tuner compatible
with Freeview will offer the best channel choice, picture and sound.
However, results can vary if you aren't using an outdoor aerial, and a
traditional analogue TV tuner may give better results using an indoor
receiver.
If you want to use a tuner with a cable or satellite service, check
compatibility before buying. Some areas require a wideband aerial to
receive Freeview.
Some tuners can receive radio as well TV broadcasts, but a digital
tuner doesn't always mean Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) support. Also
look out for Teletext and subtitle support.
Recording options
Digital tuners record signals straight to disk for maximum quality, while
analogue signals need to be digitally encoded. The best analogue products
offer mpeg2 hardware for real-time video and audio encoding, but cheaper
options rely on the PC's processor to do this in software.
Most analogue systems allow you to capture video from a VCR or
camcorder. Look for composite or higher-quality S-video connectors and
stereo phono inputs. A good tuner can record material in Pal, NTSC and
Secam video formats. While quality can usually be adjusted, an hour of
mpeg2 video swallows up between 1GB and 2GB of disk space.
Some packages will also let you burn directly to video CDs and DVDs.
Dropping to VHS-quality mpeg1 will give you just over an hour on one CD.
PVRs
One of the best things about a TV card is PVR (personal video recorder)
function. It turns your PC into a hard disk video recorder, working on the
same principle as Sky Plus or Tivo. Most cards let you store a rolling 30
minutes or so of live TV, which means you can pause or rewind a TV show.
EPGs
While TV tuners can often be manually set to record a programme, like a
traditional video recorder, they come into their own with an electronic
programme guide (EPG). Scroll through the list of programmes, select the
show you want to watch and the PC will record it. You can even set it to
record every episode of a series.
Not all TV tuners come with an EPG and those that do are often S based.
Third-party services exist to do the same job, however.
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