Help with a TV tuner

[anonymoose]

Hi guys,
I'm looking to but a TV Tuner PCI card for my PC desktop. It must be fully compatible with Vista Media Centre, be able to watch freeview tv (free-to-air digital channels). Can anyone reccommend something good?

Also, I've seen some satellite TV Tuner cards, do I need an extra dish for that or could I use my sky dish?
And, whats DVB-T or H?

Thanks

[lynx]

A few definitions first:

DVB - Digital Video Broadcasting
-T = Terrestrial, same as Freeview in UK
-S = Satellite
-C = Cable
-H = Hybrid(officially), Handheld
-S2, -T2, -C2 = 2nd Gen -S, -T, -C = more efficient (for HDTV)

So for Freeview you can look for any DVB-T card which says it is VMC compatible, or possibly one of the USB stick based receivers.

For satellite, you would have the problem of which controls the LNB - Sky box or PC. You could get round that by simply replacing the existing LNB with a twin LNB and run a new cable to your PC. However, the Sky dish is designed to be so small that it can only pick up the channels intended for your Sky box, so without a decoder you will only be able to get the few free-to-air channels aimed at the UK.

[Torrent_Geek]

A few definitions first:

DVB - Digital Video Broadcasting
-T = Terrestrial, same as Freeview in UK
-S = Satellite
-C = Cable
-H = Hybrid(officially), Handheld
-S2, -T2, -C2 = 2nd Gen -S, -T, -C = more efficient (for HDTV)

So for Freeview you can look for any DVB-T card which says it is VMC compatible, or possibly one of the USB stick based receivers.

For satellite, you would have the problem of which controls the LNB - Sky box or PC. You could get round that by simply replacing the existing LNB with a twin LNB and run a new cable to your PC. However, the Sky dish is designed to be so small that it can only pick up the channels intended for your Sky box, so without a decoder you will only be able to get the few free-to-air channels aimed at the UK.

thx

[backlash]

what are good ones for cable? I was thinking about getting one, but I don't want to spend over $100. What's the difference b/w the ones that are 50 bucks and the ones that are over 100? I would like to record kid shows and then put them on dvd.