TV tuner for dv5000t--know anything about it?

pulling the trigger on the dv5000t tomorrow and I'm suddenly eyeing the built-in tuner.

any and all opinions would be greatly appreciated. I've done almost all of my information gathering on this site, and have really appreciated what everyone's had to say so far. when i click on the "more info" icon on HP's site, a blank box pops up, which i find suspicious. anyone actually have the tuner?

when it says analog, does that mean i can't plug my digital cable into it? don't know much about TV, sorry. and anything else that's cool about having it? convince me, dissuade me.

thanks

 

I'm not sure, but I don't think these are built in TV tuner cards. Rather it will be a removable card that plugs into the side of the notebook. I'm not aware of any notebooks that come with built in tuners.

As for the tuner picking up digital, I think your assumption of only being able to receive analog is correct. There aren't a lot of digital TV tuner cards on the market right now, and finding an express card that receives digital signal will be even harder. From the description on the website, it sounds like it only gets analog. Somebody correct me if I am wrong.

Lucas

 

even if you cant pick up digital, dont they have lil box converters that'll receive digital and convert it to analog for old tv sets (or in this case computer with a TV Tuner)?

 

If you just want the anolog signal, just use a splitter as the cable comes off the wall. Then run one cable to the TV tuner card, and one cable to the box.

Another option is to find a USB tv tuner that can receive digital broadcast. At the least, you should be able to split the cable coming off the wall and pick up analog.

Lucas

 

Cool, thanks guys. That's what I was wondering. I just don't know what the diff is between digital and analog cable, really. conceptually, yeah, but I don't know if Cox has got me paying for Digital Cable every month, is there any analog signal coming out of the wall at all?

and, yeah, good lookin on the converter, maybe i'll do that.

thanks.

 

Here's a nice little tutorial to decifer analog and digital.

http://www.pbs.org/opb/crashcourse/digital_v_analog/

Try removing your cable from your Cox provided cable box and run it straight to the back of your tv. If you receive channels with this configuration, this is what you can expect to get with an analog tv tuner card.

You should go onto Cox's website and look at the channel lineup for digital and analog. This way you can tell what you are getting from them.

Lucas

 

two many wires to and from the laptop and I could not get it to change the channels on the cable box . HP tech support was no help. Big mistake if you order it.

 

I don't think this type of tuner card is meant to work with a cable box. Rather, you are supposed to run the cable directly to the computer, and then receive the analog channels on your laptop screen. This would allow you to view and change the channels on the laptop.

Then if you wanted to watch the channels on your TV, you would have to run an S-video cable from the laptop back to the TV. Like you said. It is a lot of wires, and not being able to get all your digital channels wouldn't be worth it.

It really depends on what you're using this tuner card for. Will it be for DVR purposes, or for watching TV on your laptop?

Lucas

 

Denmick, you got the dv5000t? are you going to review it?

anything would be appreciated.

 

I have a DV5030us and picked up HP's MCE TV Tuner. There are a few wires and it was a little pricey compared to my desktop's TV Tuner ($50 vs $150) but it works great. I have a relatively new model DirecTV box and Media Center has no problem controlling it. It didn't recognize the remote codes at first, but I just followed the onscreen instructions and it was up and running with no problems within a few minutes. Now I can control DirecTV with my Media Center remote. It has no problem changing channels or anything like that for scheduled recordings. Media Center even got the specific DirecTV channel listing for my area, so I can use the remote to schedule recordings, browse the guide and go to channels exactly as if I were using the DirecTV remote.

I have to say that I'm VERY happy with it. The only downside is that the TV tuner ONLY works with Media Center. So I can't use it with software like Dscaler. Media Center also seems to add a 2-6 second delay into the signal, thanks to the fact that it's always recording just in case you pause or stop TV and want to pick up where you left off. I wish there was a way to disable that so I could get the real-time signal with no delay.