All About TV Tuner and Graphics Cards

The demand on PCs for incorporating new functionalities is ever increasing. The latest is the capability to handle TV Signals and to play high-end PC games. These require TV Tuner Cards and Graphic cards. Today graphics and TV tuner cards have to comply with MCE compatibility requirements limit choices and options, with HTPC use adding additional requirements to that mix. MCE compatibility imposes technical requirements on the width of a graphics card's memory bus, the size of its onboard memory, and also requires support for certain specific capabilities. The details require some explanation, but even official minimum requirements dictate reasonably modern, fast, capable graphics cards. HTPC use dictates quiet operation and also makes the in-case footprint (vertical and horizontal clearances) a potential issue. When it comes to integrating TV with a Media Center PC, Microsoft likewise imposes certain compatibility requirements. Earlier versions allowed only one tuner card, but 2005 doubles that limit. Nevertheless, it's wise to pick a TV card from the company's compatible products list.
The subject of DVD decoders explains how they work and why one is required to enable MCE to play back DVD movies and other recorded content. Additional software is required on a Media Center PC to decode and render DVD digital images into forms suitable for display on a monitor or TV set. Although there's a fair amount to chew on in each of the three primary sections, there really aren't a huge number of options for any of the three Media Center PC components to which they relate. When all is said and done in each section, you should know enough to evaluate upcoming products for yourself and find pointers to a handful of worthwhile options in each of the various product categories.
The long and short of this is that handling TV and DVD movies requires buffer space, so the graphics card can capture incoming data, decode or otherwise manipulate it, and then send it to a display device for rendering. HDTV only increases the need for buffer space because it uses even more data per frame. That's why a graphics card for MCE requires at least 128MB of frame buffer memory, and why we recommend nothing with less than 256MB, especially for those considering running HDTV through their Media Center PCs. Although this isn't enough to handle the extreme frame rates that games like Half-Life, Doom 3, and EverQuest II (which can easily top 100 fps on a high-end graphics card), it's enough for the multimedia that an HTPC will typically handle modern graphics cards must be able to drive all kinds of devices, some of which use different cabling and connectors. The digital video interface (DVI) requirement is intended to make sure an MCE-compatible graphics card can interface with and manage output on consumer digital television displays. The VGA (video graphics array) interface and its many successors (EVGA, XVGA, and so forth) have long been used to attach graphics cards to computer displays, which an MCE-compatible graphics card must also be able to interface with and manage as well. Even when a manufacturer chooses to include and use any kind of proprietary interface, MCE-compatible graphics cards must include both of these standard interfaces as well.
Driving a TV set means being able to produce the right signals and formats, but it also means supporting the right kinds of physical connections to cable a graphics card up to a television set. That's why so many modern video cards include S-Video ports nowadays and why some video card manufacturers include other devices (sometimes called dongles) to provide attachments for component video, coaxial cable (CATV), and so forth. So many modern digital televisions support DVI inputs nowadays that finding a way to interconnect a graphics card and a television set is seldom a problem. But given TV's important place in MCE's capabilities, this requirement makes sure that all MCE-compatible graphics cards are able to attach to a conventional or a digital TV with minimum effort and absolute assurance. This also explains why support for all of the common conventional TV frame formats is required and why MCE-compatible graphics cards must be able to drive conventional analog TV sets and computer monitors with equal ease and facility.
If the right TV and Graphics cards are chosen for the PCs, then the combination must give the user a pleasurable and exciting experience. Learn to love these innovations. People will definitely try to pick the best .

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