What is a Computer TV Tuner?
A computer TV tuner is hardware device that converts the standard analog TV signal received and demodulates it into a digital one.
TV tuner cards can either be internal or external, and come in three primary card types:
- Analogue TV tuner card;
- Digital TV tuner cards;
- Hybrids (retaining both the analog and digital signals)
Cheap analog TV tuner cards process the signals by putting the load directly on your computer's processor; whereas the more sophisticated hybrid tuners have a dedicated graphics adapter that encodes the incoming signal to MPEG- Thereby putting far less load on your processor.
Many of them can also receive FM radio, as well as convert your TV signal into composite video.
The most commonly available and inexpensive TV tuner card is of PCI type.
While more expensive, considerably more efficient results are achieved with either a Fire Wire or the USB 2.0 TV tuner card. They tend to have built-in to them many more features, such as recording of the programs and saving them to CD-Rom or hard disc.
Upper end models even have removable flash memory to make file sharing a breeze.
While older TV tuner cards are based on NTSC/PAL TV signal broadcast signals, upper-end models can also process HDTV (High Definition TV) broadcasts. Many can accommodate wireless remote control, via infra-red (like a typical channel-changer remote), as well.
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