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Matt Valloney
05-09-2004, 04:58 PM
I was wondering, with a PCI video capture card, like the ATI TV WONDER PRO PCI TV Tuner, It says it has a "built in 125 channel TV tuner" but you have to plug in your normal coax cable to it like you're plugging in a TV. do you need to allready have all those channels (ie. on other televisions in the house) to get those channels on my computer? (I use my TV as a monitor anyways so I thought this may be a good idea.) thanks!

-Matt

vivisimonvi
05-11-2004, 12:55 AM
I'm skeptical to think that the ATI TV WONDER PRO PCI TV Tuner would qualify as a real capture card as you've mentioned (capture cards are really meant to be cards that can put a video source onto your computer like from VHS tapes for instance, via RCA analog cables, coax or even DV). I would consider looking into the All In Wonder (AIW) series instead (although, I'm not sure if they come in PCI form). These features are much better to have as they not only have input capabilites but output as well (you can put your computer monitor image through a TV screen for instance). It won't look as good though if the computer resolution is set high, usually in the 800 X 600 and above range, unless you have HDTV (I've never seen what a computer image looks through HDTV myself, but I would THINK they look just as good as on your monitor).

To answer your original question, the card you mentioned just acts a tuner as a VCR does (without the ability to play and record to tapes of course). In other words, you have to connect the cable cord to the card itself. I'm not sure if you're able to record, not just watch, the signal though, that would depend on what software it comes with. I have two AGP (you have to have an AGP slot on your computer) AIW ATI cards myself on two different computers that can do a lot of stuff other than TV watching.

ATI are good cards, but I know many people that go through installation pains like myself (took me over a month to get it working right)... This guy specializes in ATI cards if you want to look further into them www.lordsmurf.com

dean_martin
05-12-2004, 01:25 PM
I just got the ATI AIW 9600. I have a vcr connected to it now. So far, I've played videos, but haven't recorded any to dvd-r. That's my next step. Thanks for posting the link. I'm interested in seeing what this card can do.