TV Card For PC

WinXP, you should be able to run multiple TV Tuner cards on your system at the With the right set-up, you can watch live TV on one channel and record live TV on another channel if you install two (or more) TV Tuner cards. This can be done all in one cards like the ATI TV wonder card. And if you want to use your PC-TV like a VCR (and if you have a huge hard drive), then go hog wild in using your PC-TV as a personal video recorder for home television watching purposes. There is a growing bunch of people who want to use their PC-TV systems as VCR-like personal video recorders for the home. Most TV Tuner cards are packaged with some sort of recorder software included with the cards. For instance, the ATI TV Wonder is packaged with a basic recorder function in its software but you may want to try using third-party software such as the Cyberlink PowerVCR software.

Installing two cards on your PC-TV system:

If you are using same time. All of the new drivers that you will get with TV Tuner cards for use with WinXP will be WDM (Windows Driver Model) drivers which is what WinXP is intended to primarily work with. You will also have to see if your video card can handle all of the TV cards on your system. Some video cards will only allow you to play one TV window at a time while other video cards will let you have several TV windows for each of the TV cards on the screen at the same time. For those using WinXP, if you have a fast system that is at least 1.x Ghz (preferably 2.x Ghz or more) with a Pentium 4 with a lot of memory such as at least 512 megabytes ram, and with a good 4x AGP video card with at least 32 megabytes of ram (64 megabytes or more may be preferably), then you should be able to run the multiple TV Tuner cards without any stuttering problems that you may have on less powerful PCs. In other words, the more powerful your PC is, then the more capable and more stable your system may be.

There are a lot of TV cards available in the market and if your planning to buy one, you should first consult the Internet for the best priced and best featured cards.Installing it should be easy for TV cards come with manuals and the peripherals(cables and etc.) that you need is also included.

Here is a sample TV card with good features available in the market, its corresponding specifications and requirements:

1.ADS Instant HDTV PCI - HDTV PC Card

The Instant HDTV PCI from ADS Tech is an HDTV PC Card for your Windows XP and Vista computer and turns it into a full-featured HDTV theatre, complete with a powerful personal video recorder (PVR). Now you can enjoy all the clarity and brilliance of crystal clear HDTV broadcasts on your PC monitor instead of buying a new HDTV.

· Turn your PC into an HDTV Home Theatre
· Enjoy the crystal clear quality of HDTV Broadcasts
· Receive FREE over the Air HDTV broadcasts on your PC
· Supports normal TV broadcasts and cable TV signals
· Watch, Record and Playback HDTV on your PC
· Record HDTV, Analog and Cable TV to your computer hard drive
· Control TV with the included IR Remote Control
· Schedule TV Recordings in Beyond TV Express
· Search the Electronic Program Guide for your favorite shows by title or keyword
· Time-Shift TV Watching
· Pause, Rewind and Fast Forward live TV
· Display information for a summary of the program you are watching
· Archive TV shows to CD or DVD for playback on your home DVD Player
· Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition Certified
· HDTV is here now!
· Today 95% of all households in the U.S. can receive HDTV from at least one network broadcaster. And more than 85% can receive an HDTV signal from three or more network broadcasters.

HDTV broadcast's look better because they have up to 6 times the resolution of standard TV broadcasts and many broadcasts include Dolby 5.1 Audio so HDTV sounds better too! And HDTV is FREE - HD Shows are broadcast over the air, no need for cable TV or satellite subscriptions. Just add the Instant HDTV PCI to your PC and a TV antenna to receive HDTV! Plus, if you have analog Cable TV in your house you can also use the Instant HDTV PCI to receive standard TV and Cable broadcasts in addition to HDTV broadcasts.

Full Featured Personal Video Recorder Capabilities with SnapStream Beyond TV Express; Instant HDTV PCI includes SnapStream's Beyond TV Express which transforms your PC into a home theatre powerhouse with a powerful integrated electronic program guide. Beyond TV Express lets you see "What's On" and watch it now or schedule for future recording. Beyond TV incorporates powerful Digital TV capabilities that allow you to Pause, Fast Forward and Rewind Live TV as well as recorded programs. You have the power to program recordings of future airings by searching the electronic program guide by title or keyword.

System Requirements:

· Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or higher recommended
· Available PCI slot
· Microsoft Windows XP SP2 (Home or Professional), Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005, Windows Vista
· 512MB of RAM recommended
· 15 GB of available hard drive space - for software and record space. (1 hour of HDTV recording requires approx. 10GB of hard disc space.)
· ATI Radeon 9550 or NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 or above video card
· Sound Card (AC97 compatible sound card)
· Microsoft DirectX 9.0 or later
· CD-Rom drive for software install
· CD-RW or DVD-Recordable drive required for saving movies onto CD or DVD
· HDTV Antenna and available HD signal in your region