Looking for suggestions for a fairly decent TV/FM tuner card to go with my XP Home edition and also to be used with my Vista box when I hook it up to the TV and use the Media Center option with it.

I'm not looking for anything uber fancy, something that works and is fairly good quality (don't really need HD, most I can support in HD formats is 720p anyways). Also looking for something around 50$ and certainly not more then 60$/70$.
I've never bothered looking at TV/FM tuner cards so when I started looking online (no way I'm going to ar etail store...) I was getting rather lost as to what to look for (preferrably something from NewEgg also).

Thanks

Hello DarkLord,

It all depends what you want to do. TigerDirect.com has a good selection starting at $25. That is with remote. The quality in these lower priced cards will be good enough. If you are looking for PVR then those are a little more pricey but still under $80. In my opinion a card with PVR (personal video recorder) and PIP (picture in picture) is a must. But my little el' cheepo card served me well. It just let me watch tv and hear radio. No whistles or bells...lol

Good hunting!

LC

Thanks for replying,

What's PIP do?
And I think I may want to record shows if I feel like it, though I don't think I will, but you never know. Is there a way to tell quality of a card without buying it and trying it out?

I stumbled upon these two cards, and am curious as to why they are so different in feedback yet practically identical:

Newegg.com - DIAMOND PVR560PCISB PCI Interface XtremeTV PVR560 TV Tuner - Retail

Newegg.com - DIAMOND PVR560RCPCISB PCI Interface XtremeTV PVR560 TV Tuner with Remote Control - Retail

I'm thinking of going with the latter, but would love some suggestions as to what to buy

PIP just lets you watch two things at once. Say you are watching a ball game but there is a movie you want to see also...Why not watch both? As for quality...Well, if your tv signal is bad then your video quality is bad...Same in this case as well. The tv card sends the signal thru your video card. The video card should dictate your resolution.

LC

"Remote Control"...

Here is the difference in the two...