express slot tv tuner

I am just going to bite the bullet and get one, please give me your advice/opinion of what is the best buy out there for the money?

 

I had before one expresscard tuner that came with HP dv9000 series. However those do not work in Windows 7 so I later sold that with one laptop.

Currently I have this Fujitsu branded S26391-F7125-L2 Tuner that works beautifully in Windows 7 Media Center. I stumbled upon it by accident at a shopping mall and it was on sale too so I had to get one

Oh... those were DVB-T tuners. At least they work in EU area, don't know about US tho

 

I need to purchase from a store that I can also return the item to if it doesn't work.

What about this one?

Newegg.com - AVerMedia AVerTV Express mini PCTV Tuner Card MTVEXMINI ExpressCard 34 Interface

 

Win 7 not supported.

 

Not true!

Operating Systems Supported:
Windows 7 (32 and 64 Bit)
Windows XP/XP MCE (32 and 64 Bit)
Windows Vista/Vista MCE (32 and 64 Bit)
* ClearQAM is only for Aver MediaCenter, Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 and Windows 7

 

I think this might be the one, what do you think? Also, which is the better buy, link from newegg, or this one here?

Avermedia MRVEXMINI-AVerMedia AVerTV Express mini ATSN/QAM/FM ExpressCard HDTV T | eBay

It is refurbished, but it also has a 2 year free replacement warranty!

 

Not the same part number, and doesn't show Win 7 compatibility:

Windows XP, XP Media Center Edition, Vista, Vista Media Center Edition

 

I see why I’m so reluctant to buy a TV tuner; I just don’t think it will be what I want.

My expectations would be to have a TV Tuner that will work in windows 7, record TV from HDMI/SVIDEO/COAXIAL, receive digital content over air and not protrude from my express slot.

So if you know of anything that will do that, please point me in the right direction?

+rep to all three of you guys, thanks!

 

I think a ton of the station you used to be able to pick up with a tuner are now no longer broadcast or they are encrypted I have been weary of one ever since.

For me personally I would just be looking for a capture card and use my normal receiver to get the signal and just use the video out and send it to the capture device.

 

I want to record, but I also want to just watch TV. I'm mostly on the move, my phone doesn't stream quality television when using it tethered to my laptop. I really want something that I can catch a game or two on the road that will be broadcast on the typical FOX, CBS, ABC and NBC networks.

 

Yeah I am no expert on what can be picked up on a tuner, so not going to say anything other than I just remember there were some big changes a while back that moved/blocked a lot of stations from being picked up on a tuner and you needed a cable service receiver to get them instead.

I know also older standard TV's had to get one of those digital converters to pick up the OTA stations.

 

look at AntennaWeb to see what stations you can get with what antenna... with the included antennas with most USB/Expresscard tuners (smaller stand with extendable arms), i'd say a good 5 miles if you're 5 feet from a window, 10 miles if you're putting it out your window (of course depends on a lot of other factors like direction of station, relative height of you to other objects nearby, any airports, large buildings to obstruct line of sight etc)

(i've had some experience with USB TV Tuners, my review of USB AverMedia Volar Max but not Expresscard(sorry))

you won't get anything that records from hdmi... basically because of
1) you need to compress HDMI-> video. that takes a lot of CPU power
2) HDMI can be DRM'd protected(HDCP), i've only heard of 2 devices(aka PCIe expansion cards) that "ignore" the DRM protection

Recording from coax(analog) or svideo requires CPU power to process or save to hdd

Recording from coax(digital) is a lot better. As long as you use Windows Media Center (which is present in W7 Home Premium/Pro/Ultimate, the best TV viewing app on Windows), digital = "saving" to HDD takes little to no CPU, 3-7GB/hour, viewing/watching is like decoding a h264 720p stream: it took 20% of my T8300 as you can see in my review.

 

That depends on multiple things. Shape of the terrain, weather, the tower's signal strength to name a few.

I have roughly 8-10 inch long antenna with my DVB-T receiver and the tower is almost 20 miles away. That same tower reached my grandparents cabin about 75miles away, altough at that distance external antenna was definitely needed at the roof.

 

Wow! Very nice review paper_wastage! +rep


If that were express loaded, I would be all over it!

It's not that big a deal if I can't record over HDMI ( ), I would be happy just to have a TV on my 18.4 inch laptop that works well. I'm not a fan of using one of my USB ports, I must have an express slot tuner.

 

prolly one of the many AverTV Expresscard Tuner models will be similar to my USB... just have to find the ri ght combo

any reason not doing something like slingbox (or external box like HDHomeRun HDHomeRun (US/CA) Welcome to SiliconDust )

^ HDHR was popular with QAM enthuaists (read cable subscribers who don't want to pay for a cablecard)