What's that you're watching?

[Munboy]

So, in an attempt to cut down on our bills, over the summer we got rid of cable tv. We have DirecTv for free, so the only reason we had cable was for the locals (which directv does not carry in our area). We had the DVRs and all that crap, but wasn't using them during the summer.

Sooooo, with the new season coming on fast, we've decided to just get the lifeline cable (locals only) but you can't get the DVRs unless you subscribe the whole digital channel shabang! Since we work all hours of the day, we don't get to watch shows we like live (live sucks anyways), so we're looking into buying a tv tuner card for the computer and turning it into a DVR.

Problem is, I was looking on newegg.com and they had 3 pages of cards. Instead of trying to research every single one of them, I decided to shout out on here for some help.

Anybody use a tv tuner card? Anybody have any suggestions on a card that will work. We don't need HDTV. We'd like dual tuner so we can record and watch at the same time. Umm...I'm running XP. And the card should have a pretty good program so I dont have to get windows media center.

Any suggestions?

[treat24]

Pinnacle has always been good to me... I have friends that claim it is the best, so I broke down and got one. I record things for trips to the lake house or long car rides. If you have a laptop it pulls the signal right out of the air and you can get HD stations on your car ride. I have 5 DVRs at home so I don't use it often though. It has it's own program that is not too shabby. You can connect it to an antenna (it comes with this) for portable viewing or if you don't have a cable line or directly to your cable line.

edit: This is the one I have:

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/u ... +Stick.htm

but you can click the tabs on the left to see the others. I got a way better price... so if you are going with one of these I would shop around a bit.

[Munboy]

Thanks treat! I'll look into that one!

Turns out, I might not need it. Just heard today that DirecTv has DVR upgrades that allow you to record off air signals, which would be perfect! I'd much prefer to that.