The Beauty of the PC TV Card

A PC TV card allows your computer to receive and convert TV signals so it can be projected on to your computer. Since there are a lot of them in the market nowadays, you may be wondering what the best one would be. Before we get into that, however, you have to make sure that your computer has the capability of handling a tuner card. Let’s face it. These days, the types of computers we have are now associated with the type of person you are. Those who have computers are usually gamers while those who are on the business or casual net-surfing side have laptops.

For laptops, it is easier to just get a USB tuner. Most of these USB tuners have their own antennas that can capture OTA signals. The reason that these are easier is because you won’t have to open up your laptop to install a tuner card; not that there’s a lot of tuner cards for laptops anyway. Also, the modern laptops aren’t built for heavy use, so it is only logical that USB tuners don’t need to handle heavy loads as well.

If you want to be a geek, though, and you have a computer, then you will need to check out your motherboard first. If your computer is more than five to seven years old and you haven’t upgraded any of the parts, chances are that it will not be compatible with tuner cards. Tuner cards are similar to video cards; they can be installed on an older motherboard with a PCI Express slot but there is always a chance that it will not perform to its maximum potential due to choking the processor too much.

If you have a new computer, however, then you can go ahead and find a few tuner cards. Some video cards can have TV tuning capabilities. ATI, a well known graphics cards manufacturer, has a piece of hardware called the “All In One”. It allows you to have better reception on HD signals – TV or otherwise – and gives you the graphics AND tuner capabilities with just one card.

If you know your computer, then you’ll see that there are more than one PCI slot in your motherboard. This is because some graphics cards can be linked to power the video capabilities of a machine. This can also be used for a graphics and a PC TV card simultaneously, if you don’t want to go for the ATI card.