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My primary desktop is being repurposed from my gaming/web computer to a family TV/casual web surfing computer. Having two babies does that to your life, but that's altogether another topic.

I'll be moving everything, including my LCD monitor downstairs to the dining room. It's a small room so the 20" widescreen should work provided we can maximise the video. We are on analog cable and don't plan to switch to digital cable until we are forced to in Canada.

All I think I need to a TV tuner card/usb adapter. I'm trying to keep things under $100, preferably closer to $50 CAD. A remote control would be a welcome bonus. I'm running XP Home. Anyone have any good suggestions for hardware and software?

If I need to provide more details, please ask.

I'm still on analoge myself, and my TV Wonder 650 PCI serves my needs well. I found the ATI multimedia software quite good when I was using it in XP, but since switching to Vista/W7 I've been using the built in Media Center. The 650's are a bit pricey for your needs, but the 600's are about 1/2 the price. Linky

If you can manage a little but more than $100, a Slingbox is far better than any add-in card.

For one, no drivers to install or to crash, it does not take slots on your motherboard and you can watch TV on any computer in your house that is hooked up to your network.

I ran add-in TV cards for years and I found them to be notoriously finicky, thats why I ended up giving the Slingbox a try and I will never go back.

Take your time and save up a bit and skip the add-in card.

Even my super old TV Wonder PCI worked fairly well with analog cable. Yes, numerous reboots and tinkering were required, but after it is all set up (if you can) it is pretty stable and usable. I even have VCD-quality recording setup on that old Tualatin Celeron.

The SlingBox is a nice gadget, but I don't think the OP needs the streaming capability.

From that list the Doc gave on NCIX, I would suggest the Happauge 150. Keep in mind that digital cable does not change things, as most Canadian cable companies scramble even the "normal" channels so ClearQAM is practically useless up here in Canada (meaning: no need to get a digital ClearQAM tuner). So if and when the time comes (even in the US cable companies are not wholesale switching to digital yet, it will be a while, or never) you will need to get another "digital box" and feed that output via composite/component/HDMI anyway, capture cards that feature component inputs are not exactly cheap given your budget.

PS: AverMedia is another brand that is supposed to be good. I can't find any on NCIX, infonec.com seems to carry a few but you will be looking at cross-province tax and shipping.

PPS: Where in the Vancouver area? How about exploring digital over-the-air (OTA) and see if you can just ditch the cable sharks?

For analog picture quality, the hierachy is usually ATI-based units at the top, with Hauppauge and AverMedia a bit behind. It's not like digital signals, where if it can recieve it, the picture is going to be pretty much identical across brands and models.

SD analog cable blown up fullscreen isn't going to look great in any event (although the 4x3 content you get on analog cable on a widescreen 20" is going to be fairly small, so it may not be particularly noticeable),

Thanks for the suggestion FF. The Happauge 150 was one of the units that seemed like a reasonable solution. I'd like to ditch cable, but will need to do some more research into seeing what's available over the air. I'm in Richmond, a suburb south of Vancouver B.C. We are big Food Network fans and my daughter is into all the shows on Treehouse so our options are limited.

The Slingbox is nice, but a bit out of my price range and I wouldn't use the streaming capability. Would be nice to buy my parents in Calgary a Slingbox so I could stream the Flames broadcasts though...

iamajai wrote:

We are big Food Network fans and my daughter is into all the shows on Treehouse so our options are limited.

Those are specialty channels so you are stuck with cable. Although for everything else you can try look into digital OTA. Hockey Night in Canada in HD digital OTA is great stuff (I watched Troy in HD on CBC late night too and it was pretty good as well). You can start your research here.