The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    TV tuner help

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Krappyappy, Jul 10, 2006.

  1. Krappyappy

    Krappyappy Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    i very recently purchased an hp dv5000z laptop. i am satisfied with the product, and would like to buy a tv tuner for it. i am not familiar with laptop peripherals or tv tuners, so i would like some advice on this matter.

    firstly, the interface choices seem to be usb 2.0, pcmia, or expresscard. is there any advantage to any of these?

    secondly, are there tv tuners which will process HD programming?

    lastly, i have windows media center edition. i see that some cards have MCE listed under supported OS. a tv tuner designed for winXP should still work on winMCE? or must i pay the extra money for the winMCE version?

    here is what i mean:

    winxp - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16839113006

    winMCE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814100016
     
    Krappyappy, Jul 10, 2006
    #1
  2. Outrigger

    Outrigger SupaStar Reviewer NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    167
    Messages:
    1,067
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    main diff between the usb and pc cards is that with a usb, its not going to be portable, you'll likely need a power outlet just for the tuner. generally, internal tuners produce slightly better quality just because of the interface and lower latency. you're not going to find any external hd tuners, and the internal tuners that are hd is for ota only, not through cable.
     
    Outrigger, Jul 10, 2006
    #2
  3. Krappyappy

    Krappyappy Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    usb would have the advantage of being able to work with both my desktop and laptop. however, image quality is more important to me.

    any differences between pcmia and expresscard in performance?
     
    Krappyappy, Jul 10, 2006
    #3
  4. Outrigger

    Outrigger SupaStar Reviewer NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    167
    Messages:
    1,067
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    not noticeble differences I would say, but then again, I have tried neither. I do have the adaptec external dual tv tuner through usb for my desktop and the image quality is very good, haven't tried the tv tuner in my laptop yet as I have slingbox installed so no need for it.
     
    Outrigger, Jul 10, 2006
    #4
  5. Arla

    Arla Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    35
    Messages:
    1,073
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Just a quick word of advice, if you want to use it to use a games console (something I've done) be careful, some seem to work well for this, others don't.

    I've had two, a PC-Card one from Avermedia that works very nicely to play on my PS2 on my laptop screen, I also had one from Pinnacle studios (who I now detest but that's another topic) that had too much lag on it to work. I believe the problem area comes in whether the "card" does any hardware MPEG encoding, if it does it won't work for a games system (as this produces too much lag time).
     
    Arla, Jul 10, 2006
    #5
  6. Krappyappy

    Krappyappy Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Arla - could you tell me the model of avermedia you used?
     
    Krappyappy, Jul 11, 2006
    #6