TV tuner cards and VCRs

[M_Six]

Two-part question here.

1. If I install a TV tuner card in a PC, shouldn't I be able to hook a VCR to it and watch movies on my monitor?

2. If yes to #1, if I hook a digital projector to the PC, will the movie project, or is it run in a different layer than the desktop image?

[Xtreeme]

1) Yes. But if its a retail tape it will have macro copy protection and will get bright then dark or warble the sound! Home video's work fine though. You can find proggys to makeyour tv card ignore that macro of course.

2) That requires tv out not in. Tuner card ='s pumping video in to pc. Tv out pumps it out but is only available on video card nto as a add on.

[cysus]

The easiest way to do want you want would be to buy an All-in-Wonder Radeon product IMO. I have the AIW 9700pro, very nice, it has component, S-video, normal(yellow) out connections as well as s-video, normal(yellow), and coaxial (also works as a TV tuner) inputs. It has dual monitor support as well. All the software is blindingly easy to use. I'd suggest you get the AIW 9600non-pro/pro/xt, nice extras as well as a nice video card.
AIW 9600non-pro
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-345&depa=0
AIW 9600pro
http://store.yahoo.com/shentech/atial96pro12.html
AIW 9600xt
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-352&depa=0
If you dont want that you could go with the ATI TV Wonder Pro (if your video card has tv out for the progevtor)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...116-306&depa=0
All you need is a capture card if your projector has monitor inputs.
Any video card with VIVO (video in, video out) could maybe work as well (I don't know for sure because I don't know the connector types on your VCR and projector.

[Peter M]

1) is a Yes.
2) does not depend on 1) at all. If your projector projects what the computer is displaying, then it'll also show what's been rendered from your video-in source. You might have limitations when trying to show the same video stream on two display units.

[M_Six]

Thanks folks. And Peter M, you are, as always, spot on. I had a long talk with the projector manufacturer's tech folks and it seems I was thinking too much into it. I know when I see my home desktop from work using Remote Admin, I can't watch videos. But that's because the signal going out through the NIC doesn't contain the right layer. But the signal going out to the local monitor, which is what the projector uses, will have all the layers. So it should work fine.

Thanks all.

[thekingofpain]

I find its better to purchase a stand alone card rather then an all-in-wonder---you will eventually want to replace your videocard but not your TV system, I use the Compro VideoMate TV Gold Plus

http://www.comprousa.com/products/vmtvgoldplus.htm

You can plug almost anything related to sound and video into it, has an ir remote, allows power up scheduled recording from an "off" computer (boots computer, records, then shuts down) picks up and allows FM recording as well, and comes with a pretty good video edit/dvd software bundle---its about $60 at Newegg

[Peter M]

M_Six, that phenomenon is exactly what I was about. You can't copy the video overlay to a second display (remote or local) simply because the overlay isn't being merged into the display surface in the card's framebuffer RAM. The graphics chip inserts it "live" into the outgoing display signal. Your projector of course receives that very signal, with the video overlay merged in perfectly fine.

[Xtreeme]

"If yes to #1, if I hook a digital projector to the PC, will the movie project, or is it run in a different layer than the desktop image?"


You guys confused me. "will the movie project" yes with s-video out on a graphics card that has output. VGA isnt the only way but is another.... some even have R-G-B component input or optical or yet even DV-i. I have a projector so Im trying to figure out what else you could possibly mean? Do you want to play a minimised window full screen on pj? If so yes it does that........

[M_Six]

Basically I have a PC with an onboard vid connection. Standard 15-pin VGA. That connection goes to a splitter box with two cables, one of which goes to the monitor and the other to the projector. I want to install a TV tuner card in the PC and hook a VCR to it via a coax cable, and then use the TV tuner card's TV viewing software to watch VCR tapes and have them viewable on a screen by using the projector. As we've noted above, this should work fine.

The current setup we have uses the RGB cables for the PC and S-video cables for the VCR. Too many cables. It's a mess. I want to reduce the number of cables running to the projector. Now I should be able to use just the standard VGA cable and an audio cable.

[Xtreeme]

O.K. I see now. Thanks for explaning.