Need help finding a tuner card

[Dragon Tamer]

I'm building a theoretical computer for my class. I chose to build a home entertainment system but I'm having a lot of trouble finding one of the components. I'm looking for a tuner card that can receive FM radio as well as ATSC and NTSC standards. I would prefer to have two separate inputs for both, but I'm not going to be too picky on that note. The requirement that's irritating me is that it needs to be compatible with windows 8. I've found a couple of cards that work with windows 7 but they have since been discontinued so I'm not sure if they would work with 8.

[Bizman]

Theoretical, you said? Theoretically no-one listens to FM radio or uses a computer for delaying TV broadcasts. For listening to the radio, most broadcasters are in the Internet. If you need a TV tuner for your computer, choose a monitor including one, or even use a TV for a monitor.  If you need to "record" a program, get a cloud based service for that, or maybe the smart TV has the ability to save chosen programs on an external hard drive.

And yes, I'm serious. There was a time when building a Linux based home entertainment computer for saving TV shows was both cost and space effective, but as your experience with discontinued cards shows, not any more. Everything is in the cloud. You won't need a card, you'd only need a browser add-on. Funny thing is, saving TV shows on a hard disk with a set-top box is fully acceptable whereas doing the same with a computer program can be considered as violating copyrights.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Theoretical, you said? Theoretically no-one listens to FM radio or uses a computer for delaying TV broadcasts. For listening to the radio, most broadcasters are in the Internet. If you need a TV tuner for your computer, choose a monitor including one, or even use a TV for a monitor.  If you need to "record" a program, get a cloud based service for that, or maybe the smart TV has the ability to save chosen programs on an external hard drive.

And yes, I'm serious. There was a time when building a Linux based home entertainment computer for saving TV shows was both cost and space effective, but as your experience with discontinued cards shows, not any more. Everything is in the cloud. You won't need a card, you'd only need a browser add-on. Funny thing is, saving TV shows on a hard disk with a set-top box is fully acceptable whereas doing the same with a computer program can be considered as violating copyrights.

There are still many computer tuners available. Most of them use the USB bus nowadays though. A dedicated receiver is probably easier as an option. For example Vu+ Duo2 HD or XTrend ET10000.  You can save up to 10 channels simultaneously and watch/record dvt-t, dvb-t2, dvb-s, dvb-s2 etc directly to the harddrive, stream them to other devices, watch them on the computer etc. You can configure your receiver with 4-8 different types of tuners.

[Bizman]

Ah, yes, didn't think about almost anything being USB now. Good catch.

[Skuzzy]

<snip>

And yes, I'm serious. There was a time when building a Linux based home entertainment computer for saving TV shows was both cost and space effective, but as your experience with discontinued cards shows, not any more. Everything is in the cloud. You won't need a card, you'd only need a browser add-on. Funny thing is, saving TV shows on a hard disk with a set-top box is fully acceptable whereas doing the same with a computer program can be considered as violating copyrights.

Not funny at all.  All the DVR/PVR folks (DiSH, Comcast, Verizon...) have paid licensing arrangements with the creators of the material so we can save those shows and watch them later.

Doing the same thing with a computer program is only a violation as the end user did not have a licensing agreement in place to allow him/her to store that program.

[Dragon Tamer]

I did find a card that would work (I think...).

I also noted while looking that some of these cards have features built in where they can detect shows that are legally recordable (no idea how that works) but will still allow all other shows to pass through the system. Still trying to find where it said that though...

[Bizman]

Not funny at all.  All the DVR/PVR folks (DiSH, Comcast, Verizon...) have paid licensing arrangements with the creators of the material so we can save those shows and watch them later.

Doing the same thing with a computer program is only a violation as the end user did not have a licensing agreement in place to allow him/her to store that program.

Isn't there laws like the AHRA for collecting a pay for the creators by means of an added fee in the prices of cassettes, hard disks etc? Or are the laws simply lagging behind the development of new technologies?

Anyway, this isn't a new thing. New inventions have always been seen as a threat to existing industry. Radio would kill records, jukebox would kill live music, recordable cassette would again kill records, VHS would kill movies...

[Skuzzy]

I do not see it as new technology.  The whole copyright thing needs an overhaul, but artists/creators of content still need to get paid, somehow.

If they give everything away, for free,....well....how long would they continue to make it?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I do not see it as new technology.  The whole copyright thing needs an overhaul, but artists/creators of content still need to get paid, somehow.

If they give everything away, for free,....well....how long would they continue to make it?

In reality the artists already get most of their income from touring. The record labels take 95% of the record sales.

[Chalenge]

That's actually only a very narrow percentage of the overall industry, Ripley. For every success that actually has a tour (and no, not every artist tour makes money) there are tens of thousands that never make a dime.

[Skuzzy]

In reality the artists already get most of their income from touring. The record labels take 95% of the record sales.

Most artists I know use touring for marketing and expect to make very little, if anything, on the actual tour.  It may be different in your country.

[Bino]

I'm building a theoretical computer for my class. I chose to build a home entertainment system but I'm having a lot of trouble finding one of the components. I'm looking for a tuner card that can receive FM radio as well as ATSC and NTSC standards. I would prefer to have two separate inputs for both, but I'm not going to be too picky on that note. The requirement that's irritating me is that it needs to be compatible with windows 8. I've found a couple of cards that work with windows 7 but they have since been discontinued so I'm not sure if they would work with 8.

I ran a couple of PCs with cards from Hauppauge at a previous job.  All three "internal TV tuners" on this page support either Windows 7 or Windows 8. Their model 2255 also accepts FM radio input.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods.html

[BoilerDown]

Not funny at all.  All the DVR/PVR folks (DiSH, Comcast, Verizon...) have paid licensing arrangements with the creators of the material so we can save those shows and watch them later.

Doing the same thing with a computer program is only a violation as the end user did not have a licensing agreement in place to allow him/her to store that program.

Its perfectly legal to record TV shows and movies off your antenna/cable/satellite box for personal use.  The US Supreme Court decided this in the old beta-max case, and it doesn't change just because you're recording it to a computer hard drive instead of a cassette tape.  You don't need a license from anyone.

[Dragon Tamer]

I ran a couple of PCs with cards from Hauppauge at a previous job.  All three "internal TV tuners" on this page support either Windows 7 or Windows 8. Their model 2255 also accepts FM radio input.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods.html

Yup, that's the one I chose to go with. I also threw in a colossus card as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-Computer-Colossus-Pci-Express-Component/dp/B0057M248M/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1429719698&sr=1-4&keywords=hauppauge+Colossus

Still trying to see if I can find a regular RCA cable that would work with that though...

If anyone was curious: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/vreynold/saved/KjcPxr

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Most artists I know use touring for marketing and expect to make very little, if anything, on the actual tour.  It may be different in your country.

An article I read recently said that the artists get less than a dollar per sold CD, all else goes to the labels. The tours are then again very lucrative for big names like Madonna etc. Each concert makes around 100k or more in profit.