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TV Cards
Hoping this is the right place (Hexus confuses me :undecided )
Anyone able to help me out with TV cards around the £40-£50 mark?
I want it to have Composite Inputs (I think thats right - the Yellow/Red/White plugs...) to be able to plug in a games console.
Digital would be preferred but not essential.
I was looking at stuff like the Compro VideoMate DVB-T200 but I've no idea if they are a decent make or not :confused:
Help me please! :)
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Very few TV cards have composite inputs, a lot of them have composite OUTPUTs so read the descriptions carefully.
I bought a Hauppauge HVR-1300MCE (which has S-Video and composite inputs) recently hoping to do just that. Turns out the card doesn't come with any software (just XP Media Center drivers since it's meant for MCE) so I've been trying to use it with Media Portal. I did manage to get my Playstation2 working through it BUT (and it is a but of J.Lo proportions) there was about 2 seconds delay between pressing buttons on the console controller and seeing or hearing any response so obviously no use for gaming. Also the Hauppauge card cost nearly £100 (well, £103 inc delivery) so it's a bit above your price range. No idea about Compro cards, sorry.
I don't know if this is because i've configured something wrong or if it's a limitation of Media Portal or the card, I'll post in here when I get back to my place after New Year and have a chance to play with it some more, what I would suggest is that if you just want to play console games on your PC monitor that you maybe consider another approach such as a composite to VGA converter.
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Unfortunately youll find console games unplayable if your trying to use it thru a tv card because of the delay.
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Are you 100% sure on that though?
As several people in my Uni halls use a TV card to play games consoles (most of them are Dell prebuilds etc. though so I have no idea what card it actually is)
Edit- seems Dell use AverMedia or their own integrated one
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best bet is go round and see them, tell them the fit girl from downstairs said she wants a "word" with them then when they run out the door, pop the lid off the PC and either see what card they've got or swipe it altogether and use it yourself :D
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TV cards work fine with consoles as long as you are not using PVR software. This is because of the video buffers they use for time shifting etc. (basically the software is recording everything before you see it and then replaying it, effectively you are not watching a live stream).
Non PVR software should be able to handle this fine. I use a Lifeview CardBus DVB-T Dual card at work (DVB-T Tuner, analog Tuner, composite in, svideo in and L/R audio in) and using the DVD capture software that came with it (Ulead DVD Movie Factory - horrible horrible horrible!!!) you get a realtime preview screen.
I've not played thith their TV software in ages (don't need to) but it has been updated a lot, which is good cos it sucked before. but i think it would do what you want.
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A mate of mine used to play GTA3 from his PS2 through his ATI All in Wonder and out on his monitor.
He also failed his 1st year exams....