[ubuntu-uk] Suggest a ubuntu compatible TV-CARD

[Rob Beard]

Javad Ayaz wrote:
> now that you understand my setup...would an analogue tv card be better 
> than a digital one or vice versa?
> 

Well it depends exactly what you want to do.

To give you an idea... I have put a TV card in my kids PC after their TV 
blew up.  The original idea was to install MythTV and use a Freeview TV 
card so they could record their favourite programmes.  However the 
actual Freeview card would only pick up a handful of channels.  So in 
the end I just put in an analogue TV card (Pinnacle PCI PC TV Card) and 
plugged in a Freeview box.  I decided to just use TV Time to view the 
output from the Freeview box and their games consoles on the monitor.

So I'd say if you want to just watch TV on the PC, a basic analogue card 
will probably do the job.  Just get a SCART to Phono cable so you can 
plug the Virgin box into the PC.  You'll also probably need something 
for audio (some boxes have stereo photo outputs on the back, others 
don't so you'll need a 3.5mm to 2 x Photo cable and optionally a dual 
phono to phono coupler if you don't have audio output on the box, so you 
can connect the audio from the phonos on the SCART cable to the line in 
on your PC sound card).  I haven't had a Virgin Media box in a while so 
I can't remember what outputs it has.  Another alternative if your box 
supports it is to use an S-Video cable from the Virgin box to the PC. 
That'll give a better quality picture.

Or.... you could get a Freeview card and use MythTV.  That way MythTV 
will be able to record the Freeview channels to your hard drive.  With 
multiple Freeview sticks/cards you'll be able to record more than one 
channel, or watch one channel while recording another but you'll need an 
aerial connection as a minimum, and possibly depending on your setup, a 
Freeview aerial on the roof (you may be lucky and get away without this).

Rob