USB TV tuners?

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PirateLawyer · #1 Post by **PirateLawyer** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 3:13 am

Hey, gang. I've been lurking for a while, soaking up the wisdom and trying to find the Thinkpad that best balances my tight budget with my desire for a light, sturdy notebook. I'm almost sold on the T41 2378DHU, but I'm just trying to resolve a few more questions before I purchase.

Has anyone had any experience using a USB tv tuner on a Thinkpad? I have a PCI card on my current desktop, and it has a line out that feeds into the line-in on my soundcard. The soundcard, however, has one line-in port and one microphone-in port, and I notice that the Thinkpad is missing one of thse ports. I don't have any firm notion of what the difference between the two is on my desktop, but I do know that two does not equal one, and the USB tv tuners I have investigated seem to necessitate this sort of line-in arrangement. Does the single Thinkpad port combine the functionality of the two desktop ports (whatever the heck that might be)? Sorry for phrasing this so poorly, but hopefully you can puzzle out my meaning. This won't be a deal-breaker for my notebook purchase, but I'd like to know ahead of time if it can do everything I'd like it to. Thanks, all.

cynic · #2 Post by **cynic** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 5:11 am

The ThinkPad does not have a line-in port but it does have a microphone-in port. The mic-in is mono and not stereo, but can be used as a line-in so there is no problem. So far, I have yet to see a USB TV tuner that works in stereo (they all seem to be mono.) The other thing is most USB tuners use the USB to also channel the sound.

PCI cards are different and it has to do with the larger bandwidth of PCI bus interfaces (such as AIW cards from ATI, etc.)

feamster · #3 Post by **feamster** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 7:56 am

I have a USB 2 tuner (haupauge) and it works great. There is also great VIVO like software on the market and the included software is also good. Don't even consider USB1 tuners as the throughput is too low for a high quality picture. My tuner is currently on a stand alone server but people with notebooks with sufficient horsepower have raved on the use of a USB2 tuner. The USB tuners usually have a Mpeg2 hardware encoder so you get near DVD quality (up to the limits of the TV picture signal quality). So if you can watch DVD movies on your laptop, you can usually watch TV this way. But remember, USB2 is the only way to go. And of course the USB2 stream has both the video and audio signal (stereo) encoded so no audio inputs are needed.

csv96 · #4 Post by **csv96** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 5:18 pm

For the haupauge tuner, do you have to install their software or is it plug-and-play with built-in Windows drivers?

feamster · #5 Post by **feamster** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 5:24 pm

You need to install drivers. You should shop around. Adaptec makes one and there is even a HDTV flavored tuner that you hook to an antenna for any local HDTV signals. The third party VIVO clones generally work with USB IR transceivers and can control satellite or digital cable boxes that feed into the SVHS jack/audio in ports on the tuner which then stream in as a mpeg2 video/audio stream over the USB2 cable. Most all of the USB2 tuners have this capability.

dclee012 · #6 Post by **dclee012** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 7:34 pm

ahoy! i've used the haupauge usb2 one too. it's pretty good. the drivers can get a little tricky..

Conmee · #7 Post by **Conmee** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 7:36 pm

I'm using the Adaptec USB capture/TV Tuner with Intervideo DVR3 (included) and it works great. The ATI TV Wonder Pro PCI card works well with the Dock II as well.

Daniel.

Leon · #8 Post by **Leon** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 10:38 am

I recently got the AverMedia Ultra TV USB 300... great review in PC Mag.. only $99..... GREAT PRODUCT!!!

USB TV tuners?

USB TV tuners?

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