The cable company knows many busy people will pay an arm and a leg just for the convenience of recording favorite shows so as not to miss a moment. If you own or want to own a DVR, I'm sure you know just how expensive this add-on is on your cable bill. Some cards feature up to four tuners, allowing you to record multiple programs right to your hard drive. This is great for teachers who love showing last night's episode of Nova.

Some even have removable flash memory, which makes sharing your favorite shows with friends and family. They are worth it, however, with a multitude of built-in features similar to your DVR from your cable company. As for price, it's a “you-get-what-you-pay-for” scenario: the more efficient cards feature Fire Wire or USB 2.0, and are also pricey. These tuners can also receive FM radio signal, and the majority will record video as well. A hybrid TV tuner is the best of them all: with a dedicated graphics processor that encodes the signal coming in to MPEG, it really helps keep your processor running efficiently. A digital TV tuner broadcasts digital TV, requires less bandwidth and supports high-definition television. In the days of analog signal, an analog TV tuner would take the signals, convert them to digital, and send them to your computer's processor.

Looking to browse the internet and watch TV at the same time on your computer? You'll need a TV tuner card to accomplish this, hardware that converts the analog signals into digital signals.wait, isn't TV signal strictly digital anyway? Then what is the use of a TV tuner card? Quite useful, actually, if the option of watching TV on your computer appeals to you.

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