Advice Required

[just_laze]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a TV-Card, one that allows me to take advantage of free-view. I'm not entirely against one of these USB jobbies from companies like Freecom but i'm completely ignorant when it comes to quality brands in this area, graphics cards nvidia and ati but TV Cards?...

I want to be able to watch a good quality picture, i have a 2.1 speaker setup and a 20inch wide-screen monitor, recording in a generic format viewable in a generic player such as windows media player classic, minimal or no drivers required and a remote control would be nice.

Any suggestions?

[GDVS]

If you want MCE compatibility I think well of the Hauppauge Nova-T USB 2. If you don't then I'd look at the Twinham MagicBox. Both give excellent quality pictures and I find the drivers are nice and stable.

I'm a fan of external TV devices, I always had interference problems with PCI ones.

[just_laze]

I don't have Windows XP Media Center Edition, only XP Professional but i suppose i shouldn't rule out the fact i may upgrade in the future. Quick question however, i looked up the Nova-T on Kelkoo and found Amazon sell it reasonably cheap, in the customer reviews there were complaints about the software bundled, is this software compulsory or offered as an alternative to Windows XP Media Center Edition?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...511710-2611626