confuZion3
confuZion3 Dork
6/13/09 11:28 a.m.

Hey all you techies! Can someone assist me here? I am looking to be able to watch TV and play X-Box 360 on something other than the main television in the apartment (it wakes up my broseph when he has to sleep during the day). I like the prospect of a new flat-screen TV, but my budget slider bar is set on "save" for the next few months. I almost bought a 35" LCD for $375.00 but that deal is gone now.

Here's my proposition: I have a computer with Windows XP, 1.5 Gigs of RAM, a decent hard drive, and an AMD 1.8 Ghz processor. What should I look for in a TV tuner that will allow me to watch cable TV, maybe in HD, and hook up my X-Box 360 (preferrably with component HDTV cables)? My monitor is pretty good and I watch hulu.com / southparkstudios.com TV shows on it all the time comfortably.

My ex-girlfriend has a Vista machine that came with a really good TV tuner. She was able to view menus that showed what was on each channel, record TV, and they looked better than the crap that the cable companies' boxes give you.

Discuss. Don't worry about the budget for this discussion.

rebelgtp
rebelgtp Dork
6/13/09 2:00 p.m.

To get good performance out of a setup for this you need more memory and possibly a faster proc. The biggest thing is also going to be video memory. How much does your computer have and is it dedicated or shared?

My system is AMD 2.8 ghz quad core 64 bit, 8 gig memory, 2 TB of storage space, and a video card with 1 gig of dedicated memory. If you are looking to record HD a system like this would be minimum and even more storage space (HD video adds up quick). This is also important if you are looking to view the TV video full screen not just in a small window. Hauppauge generally makes good cards and some support dual inputs. For a decent card you would start around the $80 mark and it can go up kinda quick.

confuZion3
confuZion3 Dork
6/13/09 2:45 p.m.

So, it's time to buy a new PC . . .

rebelgtp
rebelgtp Dork
6/13/09 5:34 p.m.

I would build one but yeah even though what you have is beyond what some have these days you could build a beast for not to much. Aside from small differences like the 1.5 vs 1 gig of memory and 1.8 vs the 1.6 ghz procs sounds like what you have is fairly close power wise to my netbook.

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