TV Tuner Card $100 or less

[pcman09]

I can't seem to find one that has great reviews and is for $100 or less. Please link from newegg.com, as that is where I plan to buy it from. Thank you!

 

[pcman09]

P.S. I will have my cable hooked up to the tuner. Is there a special one I need?

 

[knotknut]

This one goes on sale frequently. I paid 89.99/free shipping. I know that's of no help to you but if you wait until it goes on sale or shop around you wont regret it.
This is probably the best tuner card on the market.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116037&cm_re=hauppauge_2250-_-15-116-037-_-Product

There is also on with remote for a little more money.

 

[Ancient_1]

If you are interested mainly in digital channels I would go for the DVICO Fusion 7 otherwise one of the Hauppauge or ATI cards will give better analog recordings/viewing. The digital qam tuner on the Fusion 7 is better in my experience. My 2250 or older fusion 5's won't lock in on my local CW or PBS channels while the 7 has no problems. In the next few weeks I plan on ordering the card I just linked to myself (would of done already but property taxes got in the way). I hope this helps.

To receive digital cable signals just make sure QAM is listed. Also on most cable systems all the digital channels are encrypted except the local stations. To receive the encrypted channels you would need a cable card tuner and the only one I have seen for sale is the ATI and it is $250.

 

[pcman09]

If you are interested mainly in digital channels I would go for the DVICO Fusion 7 otherwise one of the Hauppauge or ATI cards will give better analog recordings/viewing. The digital qam tuner on the Fusion 7 is better in my experience. My 2250 or older fusion 5's won't lock in on my local CW or PBS channels while the 7 has no problems. In the next few weeks I plan on ordering the card I just linked to myself (would of done already but property taxes got in the way). I hope this helps.

To receive digital cable signals just make sure QAM is listed. Also on most cable systems all the digital channels are encrypted except the local stations. To receive the encrypted channels you would need a cable card tuner and the only one I have seen for sale is the ATI and it is $250.

I am running straight from the wall cable. No Cable box. Does that mean anything?

 

[mindless728]

I am running straight from the wall cable. No Cable box. Does that mean anything?

yes its does, through a tv tuner (like everyone is giving you) you can only receive ClearQAM stations which are usually only the broadcast stations like CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX (and a few others, depends where you are and who your cable company is)

to get all of the stations on the cable you need something called a CableCARD tuner, now here in lies the problem, the specs were just opened over this last summer so DIY'ers can do this (not just OEM's like dell) so there are not a lot of cards on the market (i believe ati has one that came with those OEM systems, good luck getting one) and are hard to find

now in march 2010 a company called Ceton is releasing a Quad CableCARD tuner, though it will come out at $400 which is way out of your price range, though before they changed their site they said they would be coming out with a dual, quad, and hex (yeah 6, a lot of tuners in one card) but so far are only saying stuff about the quad tuner, so i would watch and see if they say anything about the dual tuner (which presumably would be <=$200), which by then you could save up the extra hundred (or $300 if you can go for the quad tuner)

now the other thing about these CableCARD tuners is that you have to rent a cable card from the cable company (they are required to do this), its usually about $3/month per card (each CableCARD card whether it is quad/dual/hex needs only one of these) so keep this in mind

EDIT: i am assuming you are in the US, if not disregard this post as i don't know about over seas cable (and their companies)

 

[pcman09]

yes its does, through a tv tuner (like everyone is giving you) you can only receive ClearQAM stations which are usually only the broadcast stations like CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX (and a few others, depends where you are and who your cable company is)

to get all of the stations on the cable you need something called a CableCARD tuner, now here in lies the problem, the specs were just opened over this last summer so DIY'ers can do this (not just OEM's like dell) so there are not a lot of cards on the market (i believe ati has one that came with those OEM systems, good luck getting one) and are hard to find

now in march 2010 a company called Ceton is releasing a Quad CableCARD tuner, though it will come out at $400 which is way out of your price range, though before they changed their site they said they would be coming out with a dual, quad, and hex (yeah 6, a lot of tuners in one card) but so far are only saying stuff about the quad tuner, so i would watch and see if they say anything about the dual tuner (which presumably would be <=$200), which by then you could save up the extra hundred (or $300 if you can go for the quad tuner)

now the other thing about these CableCARD tuners is that you have to rent a cable card from the cable company (they are required to do this), its usually about $3/month per card (each CableCARD card whether it is quad/dual/hex needs only one of these) so keep this in mind

EDIT: i am assuming you are in the US, if not disregard this post as i don't know about over seas cable (and their companies)

I am sorry but I don't quite understand why it won't work. My regular HDTV has a TV tuner in it and receives all my channels fine, theres nothing fancy about a TV's TV Tuner so why would any regular TV be any different? And it only cost like $200. So why would I need a $400 CableCARD? It makes no sense.

 

[mindless728]

I am sorry but I don't quite understand why it won't work. My regular HDTV has a TV tuner in it and receives all my channels fine, theres nothing fancy about a TV's TV Tuner so why would any regular TV be any different? And it only cost like $200. So why would I need a $400 CableCARD? It makes no sense.

well i can tell you that a TV Tuner only gets the stations that are broadcast through ClearQAM and ATSC/NTSC, i am not sure about the TV (i think mine gets more than the ClearQAM channels, haven't tested it though) though i wouldn't think it would be able to get a station like Comedy Central

though does your tv get every channel (like Comedy Central), the other thing is you can check with the cable company to see which channels are broadcast in ClearQAM

 

[pcman09]

well i can tell you that a TV Tuner only gets the stations that are broadcast through ClearQAM and ATSC/NTSC, i am not sure about the TV (i think mine gets more than the ClearQAM channels, haven't tested it though) though i wouldn't think it would be able to get a station like Comedy Central

though does your tv get every channel (like Comedy Central), the other thing is you can check with the cable company to see which channels are broadcast in ClearQAM

Please forgive me if I came off as rude in my last comment. I was just getting frustrated with the whole thing. My TV's tuner picks up ATSC/NTSC/QAM. I don't know if that includes ClearQAM though. And yes, I get every channel like Comedy Central, etc.

 

[mindless728]

Please forgive me if I came off as rude in my last comment. I was just getting frustrated with the whole thing. My TV's tuner picks up ATSC/NTSC/QAM. I don't know if that includes ClearQAM though. And yes, I get every channel like Comedy Central, etc.

well i am pretty sure the tuner in the tv is better than a tv tuner for the desktop (i have a dual tuner)

ClearQAM is QAM that isn't encrypted

so its seems like you choices are the tv tuner (which i am pretty sure won't get all of the channels, though i only have broadcast cable) and possibly live with a reduced channel set, try to find one of ATI's CableCARD tuners (usually >= $150), or see if ceton is going to produce a dual tuner sometime

 

[pcman09]

well i am pretty sure the tuner in the tv is better than a tv tuner for the desktop (i have a dual tuner)

ClearQAM is QAM that isn't encrypted

so its seems like you choices are the tv tuner (which i am pretty sure won't get all of the channels, though i only have broadcast cable) and possibly live with a reduced channel set, try to find one of ATI's CableCARD tuners (usually >= $150), or see if ceton is going to produce a dual tuner sometime

I think my best choice is to go to a local store, buy a cheap one that is NTSC/ATSC/QAM or ClearQAM and see how it works. If it doesn't work well, or get many channels I will just return it. That way I don't have to mess with shipping and restocking fees at newegg.

 

[Ancient_1]

The reason I said anything about analog and digital is that cable companies still carry basic cable in analog which I am sure that you are getting on your TV. The same thing goes for the TV tuners in the PC, they will receive both if QAM is listed. Basic cable channels normally are in the channel numbers 2~83 which a PC card will receive just like the TV.

If you are going to record analog make sure you get one with a hardware encoder I know the better ATI and most all if not all the Hauppauge do which looks much better than those without from those I have had (Pinacle, ATI and the DVICO).