TV tuner card for a T42

[zver17]

does anybody have any experience with these? PCMCIA or USB? This is likely a dumb question, but presumably I can also watch cable using such card, right?
thanks in advance!

[Leon]

I have the AVerMedia UltraTV USB 300. Works great. See the review:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1605893,00.asp

Yes, works for cable.

[zver17]

thanks Leon. I noticed a review onlne that mentioned that installation/configuring of this card is tricky (but product worked great after that). did you find the same?
for viewing cable, would I need to just connect the 'cable' cable into the card, or would I need to prchase some extra hardware (eg, the switching box - I have 1 in the living room but would like to use the T42-TV in another room). thanks in advance.

[Leon]

I found configuration to be easy. You don't need a "box", but you need the cable where th card is. So, if it's not where you want it, you need a splitter and some cable (same as if you dad a TV in the other room).

[zver17]

thanks Leon, just a clarification:

I would need a cable from an existing "box" to the TV tuner card (ie, split the output from the box so that it goes to both the TV and the laptop),
or
I need to split the 'cable' cable so that 1 branch goes to the 'box'-TV and the other to the TVtuner card. This would be simpler for me since I already seem to have 2 cable outlets in the house - 1 in the living room (to which the box is connected) and 1 in my room (which I would hope to use).

thanks for your info and apologies for the rather ignorant questions...

[Leon]

Not ignorant at all...thats why this Forum exists! Just to state the obvious... if you go cable direct (not from the box) the card will tune all non-digital/non encrypted channels (same as a cable ready TV).

[zver17]

finally the UltraTV has arrived and been installed with no problems (took me 10mins or so to fix the audio, specifying the microphone input for "live" and "record"). the TV tuner card works fine with T42 in battery mode @ 600MHz, although the instructions call for at least P-4 2.0GHz.

One strange thing I noticed though is that the "UltraTV" group of icons in the start menu cannot be moved - whenever I try (either just dragging or via winExplorer) I get message "cannot move file: cannot read from the file or disk". Could this be a HDD problem?? Apart from that the icons work fine - I can rightclick them, etc (however I noticed the rickclick generates "general" and "customise" tabs, with the usual "sharing" and "security" absent). hmmm... any ideas and should I be concerned about the HDD? or is it some strange feature?

[Kenn]

finally the UltraTV has arrived and been installed with no problems (took me 10mins or so to fix the audio, specifying the microphone input for "live" and "record"). the TV tuner card works fine with T42 in battery mode @ 600MHz, although the instructions call for at least P-4 2.0GHz.

As far as CPU requirements go, I think a Pentium-M 1.3Ghz is about the same speed as a P4-2.0Ghz

[UCI2CI]

does this card do HDTV also, cus 2.0 ghz is waaaaay to much for a regular T.V tuner

[bapatterson]

From the manufacturer's web site:

CPU :
For TV Viewing - Intel® Pentium® III, 1GHz .

For PVR features - Intel® Pentium® 4, 2 GHz or higher or equivalent AMD processor
Operating System: Windows®XP
Interface: USB 2.0 Port (Does not support USB Hub or USB 1.1)
Sound Card
PCI VGA card with DirectX 8.1 or higher
CD or DVD Burner Required for Recording CDs or DVDs (not included)

[zver17]

i dont think it does HDTV (I assume it would be mentioned). But the card seems to work well, good quality video and audio, live and recording.
note that the package includes an insert specifying the 2GHz requirements, saying it supersedes the printed manual info ... wonder why...