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One popular trend has been to
turn computers into powerful multimedia centers. A increasing number
of multimedia supporting devices can be attached to the motherboard;
and a TV tuner is one of them. TV tuners allow the users to tune any
TV channel inside Windows. When you use your computer for TV
playback you get more control over recording the content of any TV
Channel to your hard drive, but you will have to consider your state
laws in this aspect. Some TV tuners also offer decoding of the
Teletext services.
Modern TV tuners offer a wide
array of facilities along with their basic functionalities. Special
features offered by the modern TV tuners include facility to listen
to FM radio transmission, feature to directly connect to TV without
using a computer (external TV tuners only) and display digital
broadcasts. Some new tuners have a built in facility to convert
video into MPEG format, without using the processor. Such tuners
have an inbuilt chip to perform this operation. There are tuners to
view HDTV (High Definition TV) transmission on your computer
monitor. This feature offers you a cheap alternative to buying a
HDTV, though you have to compromise on screen size.
The frequency range that a TV
tuner is able to capture is limited, so you must first check that
the tuner is able to tune the channels broadcasted in your country.
It’s a main problem with old tuners. New tuners are able to receive
transmissions in most countries. There are many manufacturers of TV
tuner cards. The most popular is ATI. |
