Windows 7 - Do I need a vid card to run a TV tuner or is the integrated graphics..

Do I need an independent video card to run a TV tuner or is the integrated graphics on my computer sufficient?

Your integrated graphics should allow you to use a TV tuner quite happily, but you might want to make sure your drivers are up-to-date.

The best way to find out is to install your TV tuner, and then set things up. I assume you're using Windows Media Center for your TV playback?

Thanks seavixen. Do I do that before or after installing the tuner and how? It doesn't do it automatically?

You need to install the TV tuner first and install its drivers before you set up Windows Media Center.

The first time you launch WMC, click Continue and a wizard will walk you through setting up your TV.



Basically, you'll be asked to confirm which region you are living in, then downloading some software before scanning for TV channels, then setting the sound and other media options - its's all very straightforward.

If you don't want to use WMC you can use the software provided by your TV tuner card manufacturer or you could use third-party software such as Nero.

Just a thought, you'll also need a TV outlet nearby to connect a co-axial cable between it and your tuner card.

That's great seavixen. Thanks very much... I have a remote for the WMC so I'll probably do it the way you suggest.

You're very welcome.

Just make sure your TV tuner is all set up and your TV cable is connected, otherwise WMC won't find any TV channels when you carry out the scan for them.

Do post back if you need further help. If you don't it'll still be nice to know you've succeeded.

Well, I finally got the card and installed it, followed all your directions and... nothing....

The handmade aerial works when screwed into my digital TV but not when screwed into the TV in slot on the card. When I go to settings/manual search/antenna, the tuner finds nothing. It only wants to look for analog channels and no analog channels are broadcast anymore in Canada: it's all digital.

?

Brice at Hauppage writes: Windows Media Center doesn’t support digital signals in Canada so that’s why you only get that analog option.

Since the only signals in Canada are digital, WMC is now useless for TV.

But he also writes: "When you set the card up in the Wintv application during the Device Setup wizard, you want to select ATSC channels to scan for and Wintv will show the digital channels"

But I have not been able to figure out how that's done. Do I go to device manager and uninstall and then run the install disc again and this time choose WinTV instead of a Media Center install?

I ended up running a program to force WMC to recognize the digital tuners... to make a long story short, not a good idea. I restored to factory settings and installed the WINTV cd and such....

Maybe not a good idea in Canada to try this... go for the whole WinTV package-remote, disc and tuner card in one go.