TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

Can anyone recommend a USB connected external TV Tuner, cable ready, with
remote control for use with WinXP notebook PC?

Or not recommend, if there's one to steer clear of.

Thanks.

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

I tried the ATI TV Wonder(plugs into USB) with my HP notebook with XP
and couldn't get it to run right, kept crashing, so I took it back. I
have also been casually looking, but haven't seen anything XP
certified yet.

Al

"Len Krauss" wrote in message ...
Can anyone recommend a USB connected external TV Tuner, cable ready, with
remote control for use with WinXP notebook PC?

Or not recommend, if there's one to steer clear of.

Thanks.

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

Thanks Al. I was afraid there might be such problems.

Another thing that could work for me, on the boat of course, is 12vdc/120vac
small-LCD-screen flat panel TV, cable ready. I've seen ads for one or two,
but know nothing about them. If you or someone else can commnet pro or con,
would appreciate it.

Thanks.

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.

I tried the ATI TV Wonder(plugs into USB) with my HP notebook with XP
and couldn't get it to run right, kept crashing, so I took it back. I
have also been casually looking, but haven't seen anything XP
certified yet.

Al

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a USB connected external TV Tuner, cable ready,
with
remote control for use with WinXP notebook PC?

Or not recommend, if there's one to steer clear of.

Thanks.

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

USB resources in your computer are not fast enough to provide good
full motion video to your PC and its monitor. That requires direct
memory access from the bus to the video card's memory, so the video
card must be plugged into one of your bus ports.

I've been using the Hauppauge WinTV card, here, for many years. It's
fully cable-ready and provides a dithered, high resolution analog
picture that doesn't suck up any system resources or slow down my
older 733 Mhz computer you can notice.

Even USB 2.0 is too slow, and even if you did get it working, you'd
have no other USB devices to use because it would suck up all the
system resources trying to keep up with the picture and the intense
data necessary for it.



On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 02:02:40 GMT, "Len Krauss"
wrote:

Can anyone recommend a USB connected external TV Tuner, cable ready, with
remote control for use with WinXP notebook PC?

Or not recommend, if there's one to steer clear of.

Thanks.

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.



Larry W4CSC

NNNN

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
USB resources in your computer are not fast enough to provide good
full motion video to your PC and its monitor. That requires direct
memory access from the bus to the video card's memory, so the video
card must be plugged into one of your bus ports.

I disagree with you Larry. Provided the video is sufficiently compressed,
enough bandwidth on the USB bus can be allocated for streaming video in TV
quality.

Even USB 2.0 is too slow,

No. USB 2.0 is 480Mbit/s while the FireWire bus, which is suitable for
top-notch studio quality is "only" 400Mbit/s

Regards,
Meindert

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

I have been looking at the Sharp 15" LCD and it is great in all levels of
light.

While look considering it for the boat, I get to thinking about the
feasability of using it as a monitor for the LapTop.. Anyone have an idea of
this and the hardware involved to do this through the A/V ??

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

I still haven't done it but I am still considering building a 12V Mini-itx
computer, and use a 15'" or a 17" LCD tv as monitor.

The computer can be build for less than 1000$, including a notebook
combodrew and a notebook harddisk. Notebook dvd-writers will soon be
available and might be interesting, but I'm not sure whether you will need a
PCI compression-card to be able to use it as a TV-recorder.

see http://mini-itx.com/

The problems I se is: Is your current supplie stabile enough? If not you
might need a 11-17V to 12V converter which might set you back another
50-150$.

Peter S/Y Anicula

"Steve" skrev i en meddelelse
...
I have been looking at the Sharp 15" LCD and it is great in all levels of
light.

While look considering it for the boat, I get to thinking about the
feasability of using it as a monitor for the LapTop.. Anyone have an idea
of
this and the hardware involved to do this through the A/V ??

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

"Peter S/Y Anicula" wrote in message
k...
The problems I se is: Is your current supplie stabile enough? If not you
might need a 11-17V to 12V converter which might set you back another
50-150$.

Peter S/Y Anicula


I'm not sure if your questioning the stability of the 12v for the LCD tv or
for the laptop.??

I have solved the problem of a stable 12v for my Laptop with a 'brick' that
was made for the Toshiba (discussed in another thread).
The Sharp 15" LCD comes as a 12-13 vdc unit with a wall wart for domestic
use..

I am currently using a duel power, 12vdc/110vac, cathode type tv now but it
is only 10" and draws more current than the LCD..

I'm just waiting for the cost of the LCD TVs to come down in price.. The
Sharp 15 LCD is now available online for $490~ and that is $100 cheaper than
in the discount stores.

BTW. My son is in the industry and told me that several new LCD screen
production plants have been open recently and that production of LCD screens
is now cheaper and easier than cathode color picture tubes (production
equipment less involved). He expects the price of all color LCDs to drop
dramaticly in the next 2 years.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

For an experiment I attached a 15" Hitachi TFT LCD to my HP notebook WinXP
PC. The notebook has an output jack for an aux monitor, and you can select
to view either or both. If there are aux speakers, there's a jack for these
too. The idea was to use it for realtime nav work w/ Capn. It was bright
enough and had good contrast, but would not be exposed to weather. It will
work just fine me and eliminates clutter, esp using a finger mouse. I'm
waiting for price to come down, before I commit.
--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.
"Steve" wrote in message
...
I have been looking at the Sharp 15" LCD and it is great in all levels of
light.

While look considering it for the boat, I get to thinking about the
feasability of using it as a monitor for the LapTop.. Anyone have an idea
of
this and the hardware involved to do this through the A/V ??

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
too. The idea was to use it for realtime nav work w/ Capn. It was bright
enough and had good contrast, but would not be exposed to weather. It will


That is just what I wanted to do.. However the laptop will remain on the
chart table.. The charts are not bright enough for me to see details from 8
ft away, in the companionway.. I thought maybe the larger and brighter LCT
tv screen might be a solution for a remote monitor..

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

A movie-nut friend tried one and a 17" flat panel on his computer for
DVD viewing on his boat - he returned both as the blacks weren't black
enuf and one or the other had white light creeping ariound the edges
of the screen. We always "view-test" screens with images that have
lots of color and bright images but interestingly, black is hardest to
reproduce and most less expensive flat panel screens have lower
contrast numbers - 300 to 1, not 500 or 600 to 1 that it takes for a
good movie image. Another problem is slow response and the ghosting
that cheaper screens are prone to.



On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 08:26:15 -0800, "Steve" wrote:

I have been looking at the Sharp 15" LCD and it is great in all levels of
light.

While look considering it for the boat, I get to thinking about the
feasability of using it as a monitor for the LapTop.. Anyone have an idea of
this and the hardware involved to do this through the A/V ??

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

"Steve" wrote:
I'm not sure if your questioning the stability of the 12v for the LCD tv
or
for the laptop.??

Actually both. Most computer devices and I think at least some of the LCDs
can work on 11-13V, but I am afraid that my supply won't be that stable.
I think that the voltage in my system might vary at least from 15V to 11V or
probably from 11V to 17V.
The lower limit is probably not critical (though someone selling the stuff
told me that low voltage might some how shorten the lifelength of the LCD,
because it might get turned on an off to much). That is how ever I risk I
would take. What worries me more is the high voltage levels. I believe there
is a reason that they sell "vehicle converters" for use in cars, campers and
the likes that converts 11-17V to a stable 12V.
I would not like my gear to melt down if I forget to disconnect the computer
while I start the engine or connect the AC connection.

This was discussed in an earlier thread, but I never reached a conclusion,
and would still not dare to run a system without a "vehicle converter" that
accepts 11V-17V.

I would like to be proven wrong, so I could save the money, but I am not
convinced yet.

Peter S/Y Anicula

skrev i en meddelelse
...

"Peter S/Y Anicula" wrote in message
k...
The problems I se is: Is your current supplie stabile enough? If not you
might need a 11-17V to 12V converter which might set you back another
50-150$.

Peter S/Y Anicula


I'm not sure if your questioning the stability of the 12v for the LCD tv
or
for the laptop.??

I have solved the problem of a stable 12v for my Laptop with a 'brick'
that
was made for the Toshiba (discussed in another thread).
The Sharp 15" LCD comes as a 12-13 vdc unit with a wall wart for domestic
use..

I am currently using a duel power, 12vdc/110vac, cathode type tv now but
it
is only 10" and draws more current than the LCD..

I'm just waiting for the cost of the LCD TVs to come down in price.. The
Sharp 15 LCD is now available online for $490~ and that is $100 cheaper
than
in the discount stores.

BTW. My son is in the industry and told me that several new LCD screen
production plants have been open recently and that production of LCD
screens
is now cheaper and easier than cathode color picture tubes (production
equipment less involved). He expects the price of all color LCDs to drop
dramaticly in the next 2 years.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

Whoa, Sport! All you say is oh-so-true.....BUT THE DAMNED COMPUTER
ISN'T A CRAY! If you're jamming up the motherboard with ALL THAT
VIDEO DATA, it's slower than hell while that's going on.....

Now, if you plug in a bus TV card with DirectX access to the video
memory that DOESN'T hog the computer resources with all this video BS,
it uses no computer resouces you can detect.

If you think an external USB TV plugged into the NOTEBOOKS they're
talking about is gonna work great.....you must come from another
planet! Hell, notebooks are ALREADY bogged down. They're running
WinXP!



On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:06:18 +0100, "Meindert Sprang"
wrote:

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
USB resources in your computer are not fast enough to provide good
full motion video to your PC and its monitor. That requires direct
memory access from the bus to the video card's memory, so the video
card must be plugged into one of your bus ports.

I disagree with you Larry. Provided the video is sufficiently compressed,
enough bandwidth on the USB bus can be allocated for streaming video in TV
quality.

Even USB 2.0 is too slow,

No. USB 2.0 is 480Mbit/s while the FireWire bus, which is suitable for
top-notch studio quality is "only" 400Mbit/s

Regards,
Meindert



Larry W4CSC

NNNN

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

We have a Sharp 12V 10.5 LCD TV in our V-Berth. Works great! Has a remote,
also
you can mount it upsidedown and can program it to invert the image. Cable
ready and
we also have it connected to our DVD via direct video inputs.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Thanks Al. I was afraid there might be such problems.

Another thing that could work for me, on the boat of course, is
12vdc/120vac
small-LCD-screen flat panel TV, cable ready. I've seen ads for one or two,
but know nothing about them. If you or someone else can commnet pro or
con,
would appreciate it.

Thanks.

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.

I tried the ATI TV Wonder(plugs into USB) with my HP notebook with XP
and couldn't get it to run right, kept crashing, so I took it back. I
have also been casually looking, but haven't seen anything XP
certified yet.

Al

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a USB connected external TV Tuner, cable ready,
with
remote control for use with WinXP notebook PC?

Or not recommend, if there's one to steer clear of.

Thanks.

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

Please excuse the oversight, but I left out a potentially important detail
for using that Hitachi 15" aux TFT LCD. It needs 120vac. I supplied that
with a small 400w inverter, the same one I use with the notebook's brick.
Maybe everyone already knew that, but just in case. . .

As a matter that will be of interest to some, that particular Hitachi had
fairly low power requirements as those screens go. Net, net if I used it
instead of notebook's screen the additional draw was about 1amp. To make
this test, I removed the notebook's battery.

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.
"Steve" wrote in message
...

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
too. The idea was to use it for realtime nav work w/ Capn. It was bright
enough and had good contrast, but would not be exposed to weather. It
will


That is just what I wanted to do.. However the laptop will remain on the
chart table.. The charts are not bright enough for me to see details from
8
ft away, in the companionway.. I thought maybe the larger and brighter
LCT
tv screen might be a solution for a remote monitor..

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

Thanks Doug. Can you suggest a discount source for that TV? Does it have
option to run on 120vac too?

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.
"doug dotson" wrote in message
...
We have a Sharp 12V 10.5 LCD TV in our V-Berth. Works great! Has a remote,
also
you can mount it upsidedown and can program it to invert the image. Cable
ready and
we also have it connected to our DVD via direct video inputs.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Thanks Al. I was afraid there might be such problems.

Another thing that could work for me, on the boat of course, is
12vdc/120vac
small-LCD-screen flat panel TV, cable ready. I've seen ads for one or
two,
but know nothing about them. If you or someone else can commnet pro or
con,
would appreciate it.

Thanks.

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.

I tried the ATI TV Wonder(plugs into USB) with my HP notebook with XP
and couldn't get it to run right, kept crashing, so I took it back. I
have also been casually looking, but haven't seen anything XP
certified yet.

Al

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a USB connected external TV Tuner, cable ready,
with
remote control for use with WinXP notebook PC?

Or not recommend, if there's one to steer clear of.

Thanks.

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

The Sharps come as 12 vdc but also have a wall wart for 110vac..

Steve

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Thanks Doug. Can you suggest a discount source for that TV? Does it have
option to run on 120vac too?

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.
"doug dotson" wrote in message
...
We have a Sharp 12V 10.5 LCD TV in our V-Berth. Works great! Has a
remote,
also
you can mount it upsidedown and can program it to invert the image.
Cable
ready and
we also have it connected to our DVD via direct video inputs.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Thanks Al. I was afraid there might be such problems.

Another thing that could work for me, on the boat of course, is
12vdc/120vac
small-LCD-screen flat panel TV, cable ready. I've seen ads for one or
two,
but know nothing about them. If you or someone else can commnet pro or
con,
would appreciate it.

Thanks.

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.

I tried the ATI TV Wonder(plugs into USB) with my HP notebook with
XP
and couldn't get it to run right, kept crashing, so I took it back.
I
have also been casually looking, but haven't seen anything XP
certified yet.

Al

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a USB connected external TV Tuner, cable
ready,
with
remote control for use with WinXP notebook PC?

Or not recommend, if there's one to steer clear of.

Thanks.

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
Whoa, Sport! All you say is oh-so-true.....BUT THE DAMNED COMPUTER
ISN'T A CRAY! If you're jamming up the motherboard with ALL THAT
VIDEO DATA, it's slower than hell while that's going on.....

Mmmm, I can run a video clip on my rather slow computer (450MHz). The clip
is 352 x 288 pixels and runs at 25 frames/second. That is almost comparable
to normal TV.
And we've run some DirectX experiments here which gave full TV resolution at
over 100 frames/sec on a 700 MHz AMD.

Now, if you plug in a bus TV card with DirectX access to the video
memory that DOESN'T hog the computer resources with all this video BS,
it uses no computer resouces you can detect.

Oh I agree. I have run two framegrabbers simultaneously in one computer and
four wouldn't have been a problem too.

If you think an external USB TV plugged into the NOTEBOOKS they're
talking about is gonna work great.....you must come from another
planet! Hell, notebooks are ALREADY bogged down. They're running
WinXP!

I think the average notebook today is much faster than my computer here :-)

Meindert





On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:06:18 +0100, "Meindert Sprang"
wrote:

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
USB resources in your computer are not fast enough to provide good
full motion video to your PC and its monitor. That requires direct
memory access from the bus to the video card's memory, so the video
card must be plugged into one of your bus ports.

I disagree with you Larry. Provided the video is sufficiently compressed,
enough bandwidth on the USB bus can be allocated for streaming video in
TV
quality.

Even USB 2.0 is too slow,

No. USB 2.0 is 480Mbit/s while the FireWire bus, which is suitable for
top-notch studio quality is "only" 400Mbit/s

Regards,
Meindert



Larry W4CSC

NNNN

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

Steve is correct. It has a wall wart for 120VAC. We bought ours at Tweeters
for
a good discount since it was a display model and the packaging had been lost
including
the remote and cables. They ordered all the missing items and
gave us a discount of $350. I suspect they are alot cheaper now though. The
model we have is LC-10A23U-B. Draws a whopping 2A.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Steve" wrote in message
...
The Sharps come as 12 vdc but also have a wall wart for 110vac..

Steve

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Thanks Doug. Can you suggest a discount source for that TV? Does it have
option to run on 120vac too?

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.
"doug dotson" wrote in message
...
We have a Sharp 12V 10.5 LCD TV in our V-Berth. Works great! Has a
remote,
also
you can mount it upsidedown and can program it to invert the image.
Cable
ready and
we also have it connected to our DVD via direct video inputs.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Thanks Al. I was afraid there might be such problems.

Another thing that could work for me, on the boat of course, is
12vdc/120vac
small-LCD-screen flat panel TV, cable ready. I've seen ads for one
or
two,
but know nothing about them. If you or someone else can commnet pro
or
con,
would appreciate it.

Thanks.

--
Eliminate "ns" for email address.

I tried the ATI TV Wonder(plugs into USB) with my HP notebook with
XP
and couldn't get it to run right, kept crashing, so I took it
back.
I
have also been casually looking, but haven't seen anything XP
certified yet.

Al

"Len Krauss" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend a USB connected external TV Tuner, cable
ready,
with
remote control for use with WinXP notebook PC?

Or not recommend, if there's one to steer clear of.

Thanks.

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

Even USB 2.0 is too slow,

No. USB 2.0 is 480Mbit/s while the FireWire bus,

Well, USB 1.0 is too slow, full screen was kinda blocky and bad sound sync.

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

small-LCD-screen flat panel TV, cable ready.

A much better option. The screen is optimized for a TV signal, and
has a much wider viewing angle. Some boat friends of mine went the
laptop TV card route, and were endlessly fighting over whose head got
to occupy the "sweet spot" in terms of viewing angle.

I have a Samsung 150mp and am very happy with it. Very electronically
quiet, doesn't foul up HF reception. Magnetically inert too. The
speakers are kinda tinny sounding, but a $10 set of computer speakers
produces "theater sound." Unlike a laptop there's no power hungry
Intel CPU, hard drives, etc.; it consumes only 35 watts, compared to
80 watts for my laptop. Also doubles as a monitor via a 15 pin cable,
but only 1024x768. Great way to play DVDs though.

It'll run on clean 12.3 volts +-5%, but high voltages will burn out
the flourescent tube system which lights the screen, because there's a
stepup transformer for it which overheats at high voltages. So, you
can get away running it on ship's 12 volts without a voltage
convertor-stabilizer thingie ($150), but not while charging or running
electrical equipment which introduces transients into your DC service
wiring. Best is to run it on AC thru an invertor, if 35watts is in
the high efficiency part of your invertor's power output curve.

Only caveat is small "wide screen" HDTV flat panels are just around
the corner, a normal aspect ratio flat screen TV is going to
obsolesce fairly quickly.

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

"Mark" wrote in message
om...
small-LCD-screen flat panel TV, cable ready.

It'll run on clean 12.3 volts +-5%, but high voltages will burn out
the flourescent tube system which lights the screen, because there's a
stepup transformer for it which overheats at high voltages.

Indeed. Always use a 'whatever in' to 12V converter. I was involved on a
ship where 12 professional LCD touchscreens were installed. They were rated
for 24V and directly connected to the 24V power system (=batteries). Within
a few weeks, all monitor backlights failed. They couldn't stand the voltage
of a full battery (27-28V).

Meindert

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

I was concerned about overvoltage when we got ours. The specs
indicate a range of voltages that are accepted with the max up
around 15V. Since this unit is made to be installed in RVs and
vans etc, it is designed to handle varying voltages during charging,
etc. If my battery bank needed equilization, I'd make sure it
was disconnected.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Meindert Sprang" wrote in message
...
"Mark" wrote in message
om...
small-LCD-screen flat panel TV, cable ready.

It'll run on clean 12.3 volts +-5%, but high voltages will burn out
the flourescent tube system which lights the screen, because there's a
stepup transformer for it which overheats at high voltages.

Indeed. Always use a 'whatever in' to 12V converter. I was involved on a
ship where 12 professional LCD touchscreens were installed. They were
rated
for 24V and directly connected to the 24V power system (=batteries).
Within
a few weeks, all monitor backlights failed. They couldn't stand the
voltage
of a full battery (27-28V).

Meindert

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

"doug dotson" wrote in message
...
I was concerned about overvoltage when we got ours. The specs
indicate a range of voltages that are accepted with the max up
around 15V. Since this unit is made to be installed in RVs and
vans etc, it is designed to handle varying voltages during charging,
etc. If my battery bank needed equilization, I'd make sure it
was disconnected.

If they're spec'd to 15V, there won't be a problem. The ones I referred to
were spec'd at 24V +/- 5% or so.

Meindert

TV Tuner - External for WinXP
 

"Karl Denninger" wrote in message
...

In article ,
Mark wrote:
Even USB 2.0 is too slow,

No. USB 2.0 is 480Mbit/s while the FireWire bus,

Well, USB 1.0 is too slow, full screen was kinda blocky and bad sound
sync.

USB 2.0 is not.

I have the Happauge external USB 2.0 box and it works fine. Produces MPEG
video at data rates up to 12Mbps, which is a bit better than DVD specs.
It
can also "data rate match" directly to DVD in three different quality
levels, which is very nice if you want to burn copies of things you record
with it.

The internal MPEG chip in it is not as good as Vegas is as a "software
only" solution but it rocks in terms of CPU overhead - like near zero
during use, so you can record something while doing other things with the
computer.

--
--
I have used a Hauppage USB TV interface on a P3 notebook, with a USB1 port
running XPPro for several years it works just fine