Watching TV on the computer

[funxus]

We got a new computer yesterday, and after several hours spent on configuring and installing everything I'm finally getting down to start using it. There are some nice features I haven't really worked out yet, but hopefully with some experiments, asking friends and asking on this forum I will learn how to use most of them. The whole front e.g. is covered with connections for sound and video going in and out of the computer. This I will try some time to see what they do, but right now I have a question about TV-in.

On the back of the graphics card there is a coaxial connection where I can (and according to the manual am supposed to) connect an antenna. I have connected an old antenna that I tested works, and now I want to watch TV on it. Are there any windows programs that I can use, if so which? Can I download a program somewhere that lets me tune in the channels? I found some trial-versions on download.com, but haven't tried them yet, in case I hear of better programs.

Any recommendations are appreciated.

 

[FireBall]

Hm... thats actually a good question, if you have a running antenna, you can probably get the TV feed rather easily, though I'm not sure if it'll be free... Hmm, I remember TechTV (www.techtv.com) wrrote an article on this a bit back, I'll see if I can find it... I'll keep you posted if I do.


EDIT: Check out this article, it gives you an option, though it's not cheap.... You may want to find what video card you have and if it works with the software, that way you can save yourself some money, still not all that cheap though:

Beyond TV

 

[Crazy Eddie]

If the TV tuner is part of the graphics card, I'd guess there should be a program included somewhere on the disk that the video drivers came on. Which video card do you have?

 

[funxus]

Thanks, but the link doesn't work. It can't find TechTV at all, but I'll try again later in case it's temporary.

It is an ATI Radeon 9800, and once I get the computer back working again I'll see if there are any programs for that purpose I can use.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

The software that should be bundled with the ATI tuners is "multimedia centre". According to the ATI site, you should have DX9 and windows media 9.0 (XP) or 7.1 (98) installed for it to work properly. If it's a new computer I guess you've got XP.

 

[Goober]

Oh, I have the "TV-in" thing as well on my Video Card. How can I watch TV with it? It is an NVidia GeForce 64 Mb. Where could I buy an attenae, and how much approx. would it cost? Where would I shove the cord into?

 

[bobgote]

depends which kind of connection thing. if it is a co-ax cable, then use it the same way as you would your tv. otherwise (if it is like the VIVO one i have), they should have provided a special cord for the purpose.

 

[funxus]

I checked the ATI homepage, and I too found that Multimedia Centre should be included, but I couldn't find an orgiginal cd among the discs that came along. I'll see if I can install it anyway, or call support and ask them how to install it.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Rheinmetall]

One more thing! I have R9800SE with TV-tuner but I couldn't get the tuner to work with ATI's multimedia centre. If you have DX9b get a DirectX TV-tuner hotfix before you even try. It should save you from a few grey hairs. I struggled for two days with my card before I found this out.

Here's a link with description. And the patch.
http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/directx9bhotfix.html

Edit: Link added

 

[Jeratain]

Originally posted by funxus
I checked the ATI homepage, and I too found that Multimedia Centre should be included, but I couldn't find an orgiginal cd among the discs that came along. I'll see if I can install it anyway, or call support and ask them how to install it.

Thanks for the replies.

Just download a copy of it from their software/drivers section - it'll allow you to install it that way.

I have an All-In-Wonder 9800 and it works great.

 

[funxus]

Okay, I'll look into that.