OK now I've worked out how to keep the old PC spacewise there are some things I want to do with it.
I want a TV tuner and would far rather one inside the tower unit on a spare PCI slot which I have 3 of. Any potential issues with this and how will I know if I have PCI or PCI Express? Any other info I need to look at on the PC to see if a specific TV card is compatible. I assume they have a remote? How does this work if the card is inside the PC round the back?
One thing I was going to do anyway if we kept this PC was to pop in some extra RAM. Thought it was a simple plug in job but find my 32bit Windows Home Premium only supports the 3GB I have already. Seems I need to upgrade to Windows 7 64bit to put in more RAM. Is Windows 7 OK and will I face any problems with doing this. In simple terms what is the procedure? Do I need to look into the spec of my PC to see if it is Windows 7 compatible?
BTW PC is... HP dual core pentium 2.2Ghz. 500GB hard drive. 3GB ram. Nvidia GeForce 8500GT (512MB). Vista home premium 32bit
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...TV tuner...extra RAM...Windows 7....
Now you have space for a full-size tower, I suspect it wouldn't cost a lot more to buy a new PC.
A few to look at here:
www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Desktop-PC
Last edited by: Iffy on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 09:52
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Here's a MS link which will check compatibility for Windows 7. tinyurl.com/38kulyb
This page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express includes a picture of the various PCI slots, but don't TV cards just use regular PCI?
What with memory, Windows 7 and a TV card you are talking quite a bit of dosh (unless you can get discounts) so, as Iffy says, a new computer may be worth a look.
Note you can get very good discounts on Microsoft software quite legitimately if you have a student or NHS in da house. Also some through employers who have MS licensing arrangements (I know of someone who got Office 2010 for about £9 IIRC through wife's co, and Win 7 for under 40 via daughter in NHS).
Last edited by: smokie on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 10:18
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I'm wondering, why the desire to upgrade to Win7, particularly 64 bit?
In terms of TV cards then I use USB ones these days, specifically one of these:-
cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-2010-HDTV-USB-FREEVIEW-DONGLE-DIGITAL-TV-TUNER-DVBT-/370472178983?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item5641dcd527
Does the job fine, 15 quid, includes remote.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 10:27
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>> I'm wondering, why the desire to upgrade to Win7, particularly 64 bit?
>>
replying to my own question, you want 64 bit to allow more RAM, so maybe my question should've been why do you need more RAM? Unless you're doing heavy duty video editing or something 3GB should be more than ample for most domestic applications.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 11:31
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My Twinhan Freeview PCI TV tuner card includes a rear socket for connecting a infra-red sensor and lead to allow use of the remote control.
Incidentally, although this tuner card is nearly eight years old, it was fully HD compatible until they changed the UK HD specifications and the software includes features taken as granted today for PVRs, including recording one programme whilst watching another (on different MUXs), continued recording whilst watching the earlier part, Teletext (analogue only) and EPG.
The HD capability arises because this card was very popular in Australia, where they have had DTB HD transmissions in several states for many years.
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Thank for the ideas. Yes I only thought I needed Windows 7 to support more RAM and have no other need for it. I had just thought RAM is always quite a cheap way to speed up a computer... taking our laptop from 1GB to 2GB really made a difference.
Kids do some video editing but only with short clips. Otherwise we just have the usual (heavy) load of programs that build up on a family PC.... so perhaps 3GB is OK.
We have an account through the kids school for software (ie Office 2010 cost us £35 earlier this year) so if it was needed Windows 7 under £40.
Regarding comparison with a replacement tower unit.... there is always the temptation for something new and shiny but it seems a worthwhile upgrade would be about £400... RAM, TV card & Win 7 at around £40 each much cheaper.
If the RAM and hence Win 7 aren't needed then it's just the TV card so that's all good.
I'd rather a PCI card just so the aerial lead came to the rear of the PC in a secure way.... the USB dongle type looks easy though. I guess if you plug the dongle type in a rear USB socket to get it out the way then the remote won't work??
That Ebay TV card looks a bargain and I guess is little different to the PC World £40 offering?
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 12:31
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why pay for a card, ram, windows 7 etc etc... when you can stream if for free
right here, right now.
www.tvcatchup.com/
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I've downloaded the Win 7 compatability checker mentioned above and while if I needed it I think it would be OK there are 11 alerts for me to sort out on this or that device/program.... staying clear for now.
So what is TVcatcup, is it legal and what's the catch... using your broadband capacity I guess... remember my speeds are slow (well still as good as it's been at 1.93).
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 12:56
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>> So what is TVcatcup, is it legal and what's the catch... using your broadband capacity
>> I guess... remember my speeds are slow (well still as good as it's been at
>> 1.93).
Its legal, no catch so why not login and try it.
When I built my windows 7 machine, I didnt bother to transfer my TV tuner card into it, because TV catchup (it was called something else then).
I even watch it, in bed, on my Iphone with headphones on.
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>> I even watch it, in bed, on my Iphone with headphones on.
Any idea what the data rate is eg. MB/hour?
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No idea, is that a problem?
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>> No idea, is that a problem?
Just like to know how much I could watch without risking hitting my monthly download limit. Probably not at issue, but it would be nice to know for sure.
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>> >> No idea, is that a problem?
>>
>> Just like to know how much I could watch without risking hitting my monthly download
>> limit.
You have a monthly download limit? how quaint.
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>> You have a monthly download limit? how quaint.
You're right - for a top drawer package costing £20 per month (that's including line rental and up to 20Mb speed (14Mb for us)) you would expect more than the 100GB we're allowed.
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>> Any idea what the data rate is eg. MB/hour?
Someone at work with an i-phone said it's something like 200 or 250MB per hour. Not sure if that's just for the i-phone, or includes PCs as well.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 17:57
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Not checked what source is but if this was say iPlayer then the iPhone/iPod streams are different to the Flash streams. And the latter might be HD. Apples and Oranges.
Best advice would be to check actual usage of data allowance if you can.
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Thanks for this its a good tip. Is there a way of 'recording' should the need arise ?
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Yes, with the USB dongles the remote sensor is on the dongle so ideally needs to be visible from the remote, although infra red does go round corners to some degree (Spamette Minor's PVR is behind her head in use, but enough signal from the remote reflects off the TV screen to operate the PVR)
I've used a variety of dongles in the 10-50 quid price range and they've all been pretty much of a muchness. The biggest usability difference is the software. Thankfully almost all cards/dongles have BDA drivers these days so you can use different software. I use GBPVR, which is free and does much more than control the TV dongle. Can take a bit of setting up though. XBMC is another freebie I use. for that matter I thought Vista had some media centre functionality built in.
Turning to the RAM; I would expect 1 to 2 GB to give quite a difference on a Vista system, but beyond 2GB I would suspect the speed gains will be marginal. Personally there's no way I'd go though the potential hassle of OS upgrade just for a marginal speed increase from more RAM.
Your system will almost certainly have a free PCI slot should you wish to go down that route, given the low cost I'd have ago with a USB dongle first.
Bear in mind you can get proper twin tuner Freeview PVRs for 40 quid these days, so PC solutions can be less cost effective and more hassle.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 12:54
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>>>you can get proper twin tuner Freeview PVRs for 40 quid these days,
But can I feed that to show on the PC monitor??
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>> >>>you can get proper twin tuner Freeview PVRs for 40 quid these days,
>>
>> But can I feed that to show on the PC monitor??
>>
Yeah, but it's messy and needs a video capture card, by the sound of it for your usage the TV dongle is easier.
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Actually this is the exact dongle I have:-
cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-2010-FREEVIEW-DIGITAL-TV-TUNER-USB-DONGLE-CARD-DVB-/230567285912?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item35aee19498
Like Stu's the 'HDTV' label isn't appropriate for the UK, this on ly supports DVB-T not DVB-T2 that is used for HD in the UK.
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To follow up on the RAM question higher up. With 32 bit windows you will see and only be able to use some of the maximum of 4Gb. Typically three or 3.5 Gb.
To use more than this you need both 64 bit windows and a 64 bit CPU. The Intel Core processors were not 64 bit. The core2's were. And so you are probably looking at new cpu, motherboard, memory and operating system to get more RAM on a pc.
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I use a Hauppage WinTV PVR-150 PCI card mostly for capture/recording purposes from Sky+ which works very well. It has a Freeview tuner as well, but my aerial isn't up to the job of receiving a useable Freeview signal.
The card has hardware ripping/encoding, so capturing live video and converting it to a file requires virtually no processor overhead. This setup is running happily on an 8 year old Pentium 4 3GHZ with 2GB RAM.
The card also came with a Microsoft Media Centre compatible remote control unit and USB IR receiver.
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Well what a result... don't need more RAM... so don't need Win 7... TVcatchup logged on and streaming fine so no TV card needed unless the site is pulled at some time in the future when I'll just fit a TV card.
So only one requirement left from my original all-in-one PC idea... to upgrade this monitor from 19" to a 21"-23". New thread again methinks.
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If you go down the TV tuner route (I had/have one in the PC), there was a good free application for this called gb-tv. Not used it in a while but hope it is still going strong. A little geeky to get everything working including TV listing feeds.
There are others too.... my point is if you end up with a card then make sure you get one with good software or compatible with good free software.
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>>..there was a good free application for this called gb-tv..>>
Another is:
majorgeeks.com/ChrisTV_Lite_d4581.html
There's also a shareware professional version.
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>> If you go down the TV tuner route (I had/have one in the PC), there
>> was a good free application for this called gb-tv. Not used it in a while
>> but hope it is still going strong. A little geeky to get everything working including
>> TV listing feeds.
>>
That sounds like a description of GBPVR wot I mentioned upthread:-
www.gbpvr.com/
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That's the one.... not used it since I moved out of the last house in Dec 2009 ;-) PC been on a half dozen times since then. It was very good but relied on certain hardware but it was an excellent free application. There are no doubt others now.
... I now use a Mac as the main computer and that has a USB TV tuner. Not used too much. The old PC also had it's own Virgin Media box for all channels.
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>> That's the one.... not used it since I moved out of the last house in
>> Dec 2009 ;-) PC been on a half dozen times since then. It was very
>> good but relied on certain hardware but it was an excellent free application. There are
>> no doubt others now.
>>
I managed to lose the install disk for the Blaze TV SW that came with the USB dongle mentioned earlier, so I tried it out with GBPVR; a bit fiddly to set up but not too bad.
I've now configured my netbook as a media player through my "HiFi", I used the equally free XBMC to do that, primarily because I could integrate it with an RF remote control I got with a Medion PC years ago, via eventghost, which interfaces between the remote and XBMC. That's pushing the bounds of my semi-geek status but seems to work fine. XBMC can also control TV dongles etc. and video playback / streaming.
xbmc.org/about/
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>>..this only supports DVB-T not DVB-T2 that is used for HD in the UK. >>
Blame that on the decision to create DTB-T2, partially because of the need to eventually cope with HD, 3D etc transmissions requiring higher bandwidth levels...:-(
It was also the reason why STB and PVR manufacturers took so long to get equipment with the new tuners onto the market (my transmitter, Winter Hill, began digital only transmissions in stages during November and December, 2009, yet suitable equipment didn't appear until about 10 or 11 months ago).
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PC upgrade - TV card, RAM & Windows 7 - Iffy
