TV Card For a Laptop?

[BRL]

Hi all. Can you buy a tv card for a laptop? I have never heard of one for a lappy, only a pc. Anyone know what's what?
Cheers.

[Coconutty]

You can get a TV "Card" ( although it's actually a BOX not a card ) that plugs into the USB port of your laptop.
You will then of course need to plug in some sort of antenna ( aerial ) to receive the signal.

Take a look here : Hauppage Win TV (http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_usbfm.html)

Available in the UK through E Buyer (http://www.ebuyer.com) and Dabs.com (http://www.dabs.com)

and no doubt many others - try searching for "USB Extrenal TV"

:ok: Coconutty

[BRL]

Thank you for the reply. I should add more why I want one.

I want to buy a 'mini-camera', one of these really small ones, about the size of a 10p or something like that. Plan is to attach it to a R/C car and do some filming during track racing etc. The receiver can be plugged into a video or tv, obviously I will not be able to do that trackside.

What I want to know is if I can get hold of a tv card that will accept the input from the receiver and plug into my laptop!

Here is where I got the idea from.......(34mb but worth the wait)CLICK (http://www.frequency-rc.com/drift/sg3rd.mpg) :ok:

[Caravelle]

You do not need a TV card to do that.

Most new digital cameras come with an IEEE1349 (FIREWIRE port) and USB 2.0 ports. As the image is directly streamed in mpeg2 or other digital encripted video file, you can download it directly to your laptop.

You'll only need the TV card if you want to tune in on some TV channels as the signal must be picked up by a tuner and then coded in a format wich can be handled by your pc (and normally isn't mpeg or avi either it's something the program that came with your TV tuner can understand).

Good luck on your search.

[Background Noise]

L,

Presumably the camera connects wirelessly to some sort of receiver which then plugs into a TV aerial input? As advertised above you can get what are essentially external TV cards for a laptop - but I don't know where they get their power from, if indeed they need any. If they are powered via the usb connection then I guess it would work trackside but battery life may well be reduced. If they are mains powered would that scupper you?

[FunkyMunky]

Whether you need a tuner or not depends on what you're trying to do.

If you're looking to watch live video "as it happens" on the car, such that you could possibly drive the rc car from that view, then you will need a TV tuner such as the Avermedia AverTV PCMCIA Card or a USB solution. The PCMCIA card should offer the best recording quality and portability since it is powered off the laptop and will have plenty of available bandwidth. If the laptop is only USB1.0 then a USB tuner is out of the question due to the lack of bandwidth afforded by the USB1.0 specifications. Some external boxes will be specified as USB1.0 compatible, but in my experience none of them can provide a decent quality image at a good enough framerate. If the laptop is USB2.0, you will get better results but the box will probably need another seperate, external, power supply.

If you simply want to record races whilst you drive from the normal viewpoint (ie you do not need to watch the live image) then you can simply get a MiniDV camera with USB or 1394 (Firewire) linkup and copy that over to the laptop afterwards.

Presumably weight would be an issue with these cars, as such you'd probably be better to go for the mini-wireless camera idea and record that via a tuner card/box, rather than go for the digital camcorder/firewire idea :ok:

[BRL]

Cheers guys.

A wireless micro camera is what I am looking at. It has connectors to plug into a video or tv. Is there a card with connections on it that will accept this?

My laptop has USB2.0 on it.

If you simply want to record races whilst you drive from the normal viewpoint (ie you do not need to watch the live image) then you can simply get a MiniDV camera with USB or 1394 (Firewire) linkup and copy that over to the laptop afterwards. Now that looks ideal. Any cams around that will fit into a 1.10 RC car???????????

Thanks for your help chaps :)

[FunkyMunky]

Not sure how small the self-contained DV cameras will go...smallest I've had my hands on is the older "4000" version of this one (http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/48402/art/mustek/mpeg4-dv-5000-camcorder.html) which, with some "creative" disassembly, you might be able to fit on an RC car.

In terms of miniaturisation, you're probably best to go with the mini wireless cam. What kind of video outputs does the reciever support? As far as I have seen, all the USB boxes and the Avermedia PCMCIA card will take RF (Antenna), Composite/RCA and S-Video inputs; so there's plenty of connectivity :ok:

[Tinstaafl]

Do a search for 'Margi'. At one point they offered a range of PC-Card devices for video tasks eg TV reception, video co-processing, etc etc., often using the 'zoomed video' enabled PC-Card slot many laptops have (had?).


later....

Should have said their range of cards tend to be called 'xyz-to-go' eg Margi DVD-to-go, so that might help with your search.

[Conan the Librarian]

Mid April now and Van Winkel awakes!!!! Try a search for the X10 wireless camera. Glanced a few months ago for someone wanting to do similar with a model helicopter. Might just be the thing and as I understand it, would offer live coverage from the fast lane....