PCMCIA TV Cards

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

Anyone had any experience of these cards?

Looking to connect via a simple TV aerial, rather than all those fancy links direct from the TV, Video/DVD recorder, etc. Perhaps there are advantages to doing it via USB, say, rather than PCMCIA?

Thanks.

[rickity]

Just tried the Thrust USB TV gismo and it was very very bad, blue screens of death all over the place, took it back to the retailer who tried it and agreed with me and gave me the money back!!! (some computer fair retailers are very nice people)

Just recieved the Hauppauge win tv usb version, i'll let you know how it goes.

Good luck

Rick

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

Have resurrected this topic to see if anyone has had any experience of this particular card (?).....

http://www.itreviews.co.uk/graphics/normal/hardware/h658.jpg

Also, has anyone come across a neat portable TV aerial that would be suitable for this/notebook combination on the move?

Thanks.

[Bumz_Rush]

A very very very good piece of kit if you use hotels.
Place between TV and wall socket (use RF), and get all the channels that they have...
Only concern is the audio does not go via USB, but you need to loop directly to sound card.

I would be interested in checking out the PCMCI card.

[rickity]

As an update, the Hauppauge win tv usb version installed first time no problems seems to work really well , and you can get sound via the usb connection rather than a seperate connection (it seems to give better sound picture sync on the laptop) as explained in the manual. I'd recommend it.

Rickity

PS the card shown in the picture above seems to be an SVHS input, not RF and therefor it does not have a TV tuner, may e not quite what you want.

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

rickity.....

Thanks for "PS".

My understanding is that the aerial plugs into a small extension cable and then into the card, hence the connection. .....SEE HERE (http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h658.htm).

[rickity]

BST

Thanks for the enlightenment, if it does what it says on the packet it should be good. It certainly seems to be the smallest TV tuner around, unless the cable which connects to the RF is somewhat fatter than might be expected (may be thats why it wasnt included in the picture)

Picked up on an article in Computer Shopper, there is an incompatability issue with some mother board chipsets. The Hauppauge is not happy with SiS chipsets, although they are not often found in newer Laptops. It would be good to ask the question of compatability before buying.

Rick