Here is something that I haven’t done in a while and that is an honest to goodness product review. I have had on my list to try out a tuner card for several years, since I built my office. A large part of that is that I want to have live TV in the basement when I was doing the things I do down there. It is particularly true when football season is on.
To be fair, it is hard to review something without comparing the item to something else. This is a pretty niche market, computer hardware that broadcast TV. From my research, there are several variations, but let’s start with the two basic categories. There is an expansion card option and a USB option. I chose the expansion card because I had an empty PCIe slot and all of my USB ports are full.
I will say that if you are shy about getting into computer hardware or don’t even know what a PCIe slot looks like, it is probably best to stick to the USB model unless you are going to get some help. It is a more invasive and permanent installation. But, I think that you can find a lot of deals on used or old hardware, like I did.
These things were really intended to build ‘media computers’ that managed your live TV, recorded TV, movies, music, etc. That idea has become passé with the takeover of mobile devices and cloud services. No longer is absolute quality of picture and sound the driver of media but portability.
I haven’t spent a lot of time with the software, but I like the concept. I turn on the morning news with the sound off and the Closed Captioning on. That way it is not really disturbing me but is on in the background. I catch the weather and traffic while I go about my work.
I mention it briefly below but the programming guide seems to be the driver of functionality. This does cause some problems when it doesn’t have data or update like it should. But, it also nice to see the spectrum of what is on, I rarely watch TV just to watch it. I really miss the old days of TV guide because now I just don’t turn on the TV.
One of the reasons I drug my feet on this was because I was going to add a TV as a second monitor. In that case, I could take my antenna connection and plug it into the TV instead of adding another card. But, that is really not a priority. It will happen, but I am going to buy it used and cheap and I wanted the capability to watch football now if I happened to be in the basement.
It is also hard to argue with the price. New, these things are around $70-80 on Amazon. I paid $19 off of e-Bay. Sure, I didn’t get the remote control or the software included in purchase. I had to buy the software separately which cost me $13. But, I don’t really need the remote and so all in it was $32. A serviceable, used TV is going to cost $25-50 likely. But now, I won’t have to mess with input switching.
I call this technojunk because it gives new life an purpose to old hardware. Yes, it is a computer that I use every day but it is supposedly supported on Windows 7, 8 and Linux as well. I debated setting it up on my Linux computer but that is going to be my Software Defined Radio and other things machine. Plus, I prefer the main interface to the remote one and I am in my office five days a week.
| Score | Advantages | Disadvantages | |
| Value | 4/5 | I paid less than half of the list price by buying used | Be aware that if you buy used that you will also need to buy a software license |
| Other devices on your network can access live TV through the software | I did not get a remote control that comes with the full package | ||
| Works with ATSC (antenna) and NTSC signals (cable) | Requires some computer knowledge to install card. Installation instructions can be cryptic and dated | ||
| Quality | 3/5 | A lot of flexibility to record to specific directory or NAS | The software relies highly on the electronic programming guide. Not all stations provide data. |
| Channels can be configured in the order you would like to view | In full screen mode, controls disappear, requires remote to operate properly | ||
| Full screen mode has a fuzzy picture | |||
| Performance | 4/5 | Extends TV to all devices connected to the same network as computer | This is a single tuner, it means that you can only record one program at a time |
| You can finally record live broadcast TV again without paying a service | This is old technology without modern inputs/outputs | ||
| Runs all day without impacting internet bandwidth | Watching TV on extended devices has less control than the base software |
End Your Programming Routine: This wasn’t necessary, just fun. I spend very little time watching TV, but when I see Walker, Texas Ranger on it brings back memories. I used to record and watch This Old House before digital TV, but now I can stream it if I really want to follow along. I do like the ability to see the local news while I am going about my day. So, why not?
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