PC Card vs USB Tuner for Acer Laptop - What to Get?

[exequor]

I am considering getting a tv tuner for my acer laptop. I have heard of some lag issues with the usb tuners. I have 64mb of shared video memory (and usb2 ofcourse) but i don't want to buy a usb tuner then there are lag issues. I noticed that the usb ones are cheaper than pc cards and they provide much more features such as am/fm as well as video and sound inputs/outputs.

What would you guys recommend that I get?

 

[dduardo]

I think USB2 will be good enough. I haven't personally tried it, but with a tranfer rate of 480Mbits I think you'll be fine. PCMCIA should be fine too.

The main issue I see is the actual tv turner software. The reason I say this is because I have a hauppauge PCI card and the company's software blows on windows. Linux on the other hand has a nice program called tvtime which works wonders. All the USB2/PCMCIA tv tuners your going to find are going to have about the same quality but it is the software you use the card with that makes the difference.

I don't have any particular model of recommendation, but in your research I would concentrate on the software the tvtuner comes with.

 

[russ_watters]

Lag could only be an issue if you are playing video games - other than that, I think a usb adapter should be fine.

One thing I have experienced with PCI cards is that the electric/magnetic fields inside the pc make for worse reception than with external adapters. I didn't believe this when others told me until I tried it myself. The same problem could (but I don't know for sure) exist with pc card tuners.

 

[exequor]

thanx for the info guys. I think that I will go for the external usb tuner because I get more features for the same price (or a cheaper price).

 

[physicsCU]

ATI has a nice one, I have read good reviews of that. look into that, its like $100.