I'm thinking of buying a TV tuner card and installing it in my PC, anything I should know beforehand? Any good cards on the market that support Win7? Thanks in advance.
Consider Pinnacle hybrid (Analog + DVB-T + FM) cards from the late 2000's. easy to find, are actually good at what they do, and you can find them in many interfaces like PCI or even PCMCIA.
Important is when finding a unit, check if you can find 64-bit drivers for the card, as its sometimes difficult, because Pinnacle targeted specifically 32-Bit Windows XP for a long time... if you get a card from that era (Especially one with a Philips/Conexant chip) , get ready for endless hours of agonizing driver hunting and compiling beta drivers with ancient DDKs (talking from first hand experience and miserable all-nighters on the computer!..)
I personally recommend the
Pinnacle PC-TV 310i, a hybrid PCI TV Tuner, supporting 1080p Digital/Analog Television, Crystal clear FM-Radio. very slim and reliable and Windows 7 already has a driver for it, no need to fiddle with external drivers. It also works out of the box with Windows Media Center, which is also an awesome, noteworthy feature.
If you don't want a card from Pinnacle you can try WinTV cards from Hauppauge. It's the most popular pick and probably the most reliable, but i haven't really used it myself, you'd be better off with WinTVs if you talk to somebody who owns one... Another option is a Kworld or an ASUS Tuner. Kworld is also very common to find and are very simple with no fancy features whatsoever, while ASUS actually makes Tuners to this day, in contrast to other manufacturers who have pretty much stopped producing them since the 2010's.
And, be wary, AVOID TUNERS FROM CRYPTO!!! You will never find a working driver for them on 64-bit and are extremely bad quality hardware-wise.
To sum up, there are many options for a TV-Tuner. In the end which one you'll use is up to what will you find ( or buy if you're willing to spend around 20-100$ for something you will use like twice and then let it dust in your PCI slot). Make do of my warnings and my recommendations and use wisely what you have or will get.
If you have any problem, i might be able to help you; im active almost daily here
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NOTE: I am aware this is an old post, but its not solved yet and not many individuals responded to this thread and the poster might still have difficulties to decide.
