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The video/graphics card shown above is the ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9800 PRO DVI graphics card that uses the AGP connection standard (the standard previous to the current PCI Express standard used to connect graphics cards) and only has a white digital DVI-I port that connects to the DVI port on a digital CRT or LCD monitor. A DVI-I port on a graphics card has the four pins, shown in the image above on the right hand side of the DVI-I port, that carry an analog VGA signal, which allows it to be connected to a VGA port on a monitor with the correct cable (DVI- to-VGA). The card itself doesn't have a standard blue analog D-sub VGA port, shown below, the older of the two technologies, which is still found on many video cards, either alone, or together with a DVI port. A DVI-D port is digital only and cannot be connected to a VGA-only monitor.
As was mentioned above and on Page 1 of this article, a DVI-I port can produce both analog VGA and digital DVI signals. It has four pin holes to the left of the main body pin holes (three rows of eight) that carry the VGA signal. If you have a PC monitor that only has an analog VGA connector, you can connect the graphics card and the monitor by using a cheap DVI-to-VGA cable that is often provided with a graphics card. The cable simply connects the four pins carrying the VGA signal to a D-sub VGA connector on the monitor.
If you need to identify the video card installed in your computer in order to download driver updates from its manufacturer's site, open the Device Manager and look under the heading Display adapters. If the manufacturer's device drivers are installed, the make and model of the graphics/video card should be provided there. If that is not the case, for instance, because the standard Windows driver has been installed, in which case the free GPU-Z utility can be used to identify the card instead. (Use its name as the search query in a web search engine to find the download site.)
Here is an example of the graphics-card information that it provides for an ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series PCI Express (PCI-E) graphics card:
Identifying the make and model of the graphics card might be necessary because the video chip is built into the motherboard, or, if it is in the form of a PCI, AGP or PCI Express adapter card, it can sometimes be difficult to identify the make and model by removing and examining it.
If the standard Windows VGA analog display adapter is shown in the Device Manager, this means that either the card's device drivers (created by its manufacturer) have become corrupt and Windows has reverted to its standard drivers, or the correct drivers were not installed. This situation is remedied by downloading and installing the latest driver file from the card's manufacturer's website.
Another useful source of system information is provided by the Direct X diagnostic utility and the Windows System Information utility. In Windows XP, enter dxdiag in the Start => Run box to open the Direct X utility. Look for System Information under System Tools under Programs => Accessories, or quickly by entering msinfo32 in the Start => Run box. In Windows Vista, enter both of those commands in the Start => Start Search box and In Windows 7, enter them in the Start => Search programs and files box.
Before you purchase a video/graphics card (or any other kind of adapter card) you should make sure that it is compatible with your motherboard and that the power supply unit has enough power to accommodate it. The inside of the case should also have the correct slot and enough space to accommodate it. Some video/graphics cards have double the width of a standard card or come with a large cooling unit built into them that requires additional space in the case. A large graphics card can cover the space of the adapter/expansion slot next to it, rendering it unusable. You should especially take space into consideration when installing dual video cards.
If you cannot find compatibility information in the motherboard's manual, or on the motherboard manufacturer's website, try asking the members of a computer forum (free registration is usually required), or posting your question to the motherboard's ALT newsgroup, most of which are accessible via Google Groups. Most reputable motherboard manufacturers have their own ALT newsgroup that has the word mainboard in its address.
For example, the MSI motherboard manufacturer's ALT newsgroup is:
alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar
If necessary, read the Newsgroup page on this site. Remember, also, that there are numerous live or semi-live computer forums that you should try using first given that many newgroups are abandoned due to being spammed with ads.
The free CPU-Z utility can identify a PC's motherboard.
If you purchase a retail boxed video/graphics card it will come with an installation manual that shows how all of the features of the card are used and how to install it. If you purchased an OEM video card that is supported by the vendor instead of the manufacturer, you might have to download the manual from the manufacturer's website. If the video card is built into the motherboard, the motherboard's user manual will provide the necessary installation information.
Many standard video cards and laptops still have a D-sub VGA port, such as the sole blue port shown in the image of a video card below. On a laptop a VGA port would be used to connect to an external monitor. If a video card only has a digital DVI port, a conversion cable has to be used if you want to connect it to a LCD/TFT flat-panel monitor that only has an analog VGA port.
The monitor's cable is attached to the output port, but it is possible to purchase dual-head cards (see below) that can be connected to two monitors.
A video card with both a standard VGA port and a DVI port can have monitors connected to both ports with supporting cables.
Windows 98, and all of the later versions of Windows (2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7), are capable of showing different views on the two monitors. You can also purchase a video card that has a DVI port to which a digital LCD monitor is attached. Note that some video cards now provide two digital DVI output ports that allow them to be used with two digital monitors. All of the latest NVIDIA and AMD (used to be called ATI) video cards have at least one digital DVI port. See the PC Monitors section of this website for more info on LCD monitors.
Below is an image of an analog ATI video card that has a blue analog VGA monitor port (far right) and TV-Out and S-Video Out ports (far left), on its faceplate. Both ports allow the screen output to go to a TV set or video recorder (VCR) instead of a computer monitor. The round port in the middle is a video-in/video-out (VIVO) port that allows video to be captured from an analog device such as a VHS video recorder, edited, and then returned to the analog device. Note that since the digital DVI graphics standard became available most video cards no longer provide an analog VGA port and non video cards provide TV-Out, S-Video and VIVO ports because digital connections (DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI) have replaced them. The old analog interfaces are being replaced by HDMI, which can connect to any other digital interface (DVI, DisplayPort) via a suitable cable.
For example, if a flat-panel TV has one or more HDMI ports, which they all have now, by using a suitable cable, you can connect that TV to a PC's DVI or DisplayPort ports coming from the motherboard or the graphics card.
It was also possible to purchase an analog video card with a TV-In port that allowed data input to the computer from a TV, which a digital HDMI connection to a TV allows, so that port has also been dropped from digital video cards.
Note that the correct cables for each option have to be used to link the computer to a television set.
Some motherboards, such as the MSI 6570, allowed a TV-Out bracket with S Video and RCA Composite TV-Out connectors to be connected to the motherboard. Such a bracket is inserted in one of the outlets at the back of the case that are also used for PCI, AGP, and PCI Express adapter cards. The cables are attached to the connection points on the motherboard as per instructions in its user manual.
A VGA port on a graphics card or motherboard can be connected to a DVI-I connection on a monitor with the correct cable or adapter (and the other way around - DVI-I port on the graphics card and VGA port on the monitor). (Search the web for vga-to-dvi and dvi-to-vga.) A DVI-D connection on a monitor (or graphics card) is digital only and cannot be connected or converted to an analog VGA port.
The digital DVI connection standard can be converted to HDMI or DisplayPort and vice versa with a suitable adapter. See Page 1 of this article for more information on these connection standards.
When searching for an adapter of cable, to create a search query, start with the standard of the graphics card's port (e.g., DVI-D) and then add the monitor's connection standard (e.g., DisplayPort) - dvi-d-to-displayport.
The Build Your Own PC section of this website contains all of the information you need on how to build a desktop PC from its components.
Click here! to go directly to information on the first Build a PC page on this site about taking the precautions you must take against static electricity before you install a computer component.
Click here! to go directly to the Disclaimer on the same page. It contains other important information that you should be aware of before working on a computer. Use your browser's Back button to return to this page.
It is now possible to install two or more PCI Express graphics cards in a PC, but most people are still using single cards, so I'll deal with a single installation first. Installing dual-card SLI (NVIDIA) or CrossFire (AMD) cards is dealt with further down this page.
Before you install an upgrade graphics/video card, you should uninstall the current card's device driver in the Start => Control Panel => Add or Remove Programs in Windows XP (under Hardware and Sound => Programs and Features in Windows Vista and Windows 7), where the driver should have the same name as or a similar name to the card, switch the computer off, remove the old card and install the new one. Restarting the computer will make Windows search for new hardware when it detects the new card and install its drivers. If Windows asks for a driver disc or location from which to install the drivers, you can insert the disc with the driver file or point it to where you have downloaded and saved the latest driver file from the card-manufacturer's or brand-name computer's site. Due to laptop-specific customisation, laptop video-card drives must be obtained from the laptop manufacturer's not the card manufacturer's website. If Windows has the drivers in its drivers library and installs them, you can download and install the latest driver file from the relevant manufacturer's website.
Note, however, that the drivers for current video cards tend to be very large files that require a broadband connection for speedy download. If you have to use a 56K dial-up or slow broadband connection, the file will take a long time to download. If you need to see a graphics card being installed, watch this video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5ILrq7lMe-0
Note that you can remove the device driver program via the Device Manager, but using the Control Panel is preferable because it is likely to remove the driver more completely from the system and the Registry - the database in which all hardware and software installations are set up by Windows.
Installing an ISA (redundant technology), PCI (redundant technology for graphics cards but the cards are still available new), AGP (becoming redundant technology - the cards are still available), or PCI Express graphics card (the latest standard now up to version 3.0) is merely a matter of removing the screw/clip that screws/clips the slot's metal cover (banking plate) over its outlet at the back of the case, and inserting the card in its correct type of slot (PCI, AGP, PCI Express) so that its face-plate containing the card's connection ports replaces the metal cover and shows at the back of the case. Note that some PC cases use both a screw and a clip to secure the blanking plate in place.
Note that PCI Express cards usually require one or two auxiliary PCI Express power connectors from the power supply to be connected to them. The ports for two connections from the power supply are shown in the image below of an AMD Radeon HD 6790 graphics card.
The PC's power supply must be up to powering a particular graphics card, or dual-card setup. Dual-card setups can easily require at least a 600W power supply that has a pair of auxiliary six-pin connectors. You can check amd.com (AMD CrossFire) and slizone.com/ (NVIDIA SLI) for certified components.
High-end AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards, especially dual-card setups, require plenty of power. Power consumption at or over 200 Watts are not unusual. In dual-card configurations built around SLI or Crossfire technologies, the graphics processing can add 500 watts or more to a system's total power consumption. Not many standard, non-gaming PC's have a power supply unit (PSU) that is up to those kind of power demands, therefore always take the power supply into careful consideration if you plan to convert a standard PC into a gaming machine.
The performance boost that is provided by SLI or Crossfire setups varies from one game to the next. Support for these technologies has not been perfected, which still makes it possible to obtain better performance from a single high-end card setup.
PSUs: More Important than You Think [August 2007] -
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/psu-power-supply,review-2385.html
Click here! to go to relevant information on power supplies on this site.
Note that there must be enough space inside the case to accommodate the card. If you have a small mini-tower ATX case or any other kind of small case, you will have to use a low-profile card, which is half the height of a standard graphics card, designed for small cases. You should measure the inside of the case where the graphics card will be installed and then look at the specifications of the card you want to install to make sure that it fits.
Note also that double-slot graphics cards, which all of the most powerful cards are, are twice the thickness of a single-slot card and, as such, will take the space of two adapter-card slots.
If you installed an AGP video card, even if you were sure that it was properly seated in its slot, it still may not be properly seated. Remove the AGP card and reinstall it, making sure it seats completely. If the motherboard has an AGP retention mechanism, which most motherboard's don't have, it keeps the card in place, so make sure the notch on the AGP card fully engages the mechanism. One of the most common reasons for a loose AGP card is that the screw used to secure it to the case may lift the card partially out of its slot. This problem is rare with high-quality cases and AGP cards, but quite common with cheap components. There are different types of retention mechanism. To remove the card means having to disengage the mechanism, which can sometimes be difficult to do. The motherboard's user manual, a copy of which should be available as a PDF document from its manufacturer's site, should provide illustrated information on how to install a video card if a retention mechanism is employed.
Just make sure never to force anything to do with installing devices or setting up a computer, and make sure that the card is inserted all the way into the slot.
Note that there are occasions when screwing the card in too tightly raises its end connector out of the slot and causes an error that can render the computer unbootable.
You would then close the case and attach the monitor's cable to the appropriate port on the graphics card, which is usually a standard D-sub VGA port or a digital DVI port that were dealt with on Page 1 of this article.
Removing the video card would be the reverse of installing it. You would have the computer switched off but still plugged in to the mains to earth it. You would remove the monitor cable, open the case, the act of which would discharge any static electricity in your body (which can destroy electronic devices of this kind), and remove the card.
See the relevant item in the table below for information on upgrading a graphics card.
HDMI - High-Definition Multimedia Interface - the replacement for the analog standardsHDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a digital audio/video interface that is replacing the old analog interfaces that use SCART, S-Video, and RCA connections. The standard can transmit uncompressed video streams. - High-Definition Multimedia Interface - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI and http://www.hdmi.org/. The latest HDMI 1.4 standard (March 2011) is backwards compatible with older devices, so existing HD TVs won't be rendered obsolete by it. It supports the latest surround-sound standards, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, which allows a HD disc player/drive to transmit full digital audio from the disc to a compatible surround-sound amplifier. Note that there are now 5 HDMI connector types. Type A and type B are defined in the HDMI 1.0 specification, type C is defined in the HDMI 1.3 specification and type D is defined in the HDMI 1.4 specification. Upgrading a graphics cardIf you are upgrading or replacing the video/graphics card, you'll have to remove the old card and then install the new one. But before you do that you should uninstall the device drivers that the old video card uses. You can do that in Windows 98 and Windows XP by opening Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, and looking for the reference to the display driver that should have a name such as ATI Display Driver if it's a video card made by ATI. (Note that ATI has now been renamed to AMD.) Or you can remove the driver by opening the Control Panel, opening its System Properties, and opening Display adapters in the Device Manager. In Windows Vista and Windows 7 look for Programs and Features in the Control Panel. In the Device Manager, open the category Display adapters, right-click on the graphics card's entry and choose Uninstall from the menu that comes up. Then close down, switch the computer off at the mains, remove the old video card, and install the new card. When you start the computer up, it will detect new hardware and install the device drivers itself, or ask you to point it to the source of the drivers, which could be on a CD, or in a folder that contains the downloaded driver file. Note: If your PC has an AGP graphics card (the AGP graphics standard has been superseded by the PCI Express standard, but AGP graphics cards are still available), do not remove the AGP driver in Add or Remove Programs (Windows XP) or under Programs and Features (in Windows Vista and Windows 7), because it is a device driver that the motherboard uses for the AGP bus. Disabling an onboard video chip in order to install a video cardIf you want to install a video card on to a motherboard that is presently using a video chip that is built into the motherboard, you have to disable the onboard video first. This can be done via a setting in the BIOS (the most common way), or by setting a jumper on the motherboard itself. The information on what to do is contained in the motherboard's manual, which you can download from its manufacturer's site if you don't have a copy. You can use the free CPU-Z utility to identify a PC's motherboard. |
Note that many motherboards have the AGP or PCI Express slot positioned so closely to the RAM DIMM slots that the RAM modules have to be removed before the video card can be installed, and the video card has to be removed in order to remove or add RAM modules. It is not unusual to hear that someone has tried to install, say, an nVidia GeForce video card and the installed RAM modules have knocked off some of the card's protruding capacitors, thereby rendering it useless. This situation would not have been a problem if the obvious and necessary installation procedures were taken.
Furthermore, very often the first PCI slot on the motherboard is positioned too close to the AGP or PCI Express slot. If an adapter card is installed in that PCI slot, it would deprive the AGP/PCI Express card of air, and might cause it to function abnormally, or to be damaged by overheating.
Furthermore, the cooling unit built into some video cards is so large that the card takes the space of two slots. Space inside the case must especially be taken into consideration when you intend to install dual SLI (NVIDIA) or CrossFire (AMD/ATI) graphics cards.
Some motherboard/video-card reviews provide useful information of that kind.
Personally, I would not purchase a motherboard or video card until I had read all of the reviews of it on the Internet or in computer magazines.
If a video card is not installed properly, the BIOS will issue a beep code via the computer's speaker inside the case. That is why you should make sure that the speaker is connected properly to the motherboard. See the Build a PC page for information on this. The beep codes will vary depending on the make of BIOS. One long beep is usually produced for a video card that is not working.
There are special considerations involved in installing two video/graphics cards that are supported by a motherboard that supports either nVidia's SLI dual-card technology or AMD's CrossFire dual-card technology.
If you want to find out how to install two video cards so that they run in SLI mode, download the illustrated user manual for the Socket 939 MS-7100 (aka K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI) motherboard made by MSI.
If you're having problems in getting two cards to work together, read this Q&A on this site: I can't get two SLI or CrossFire video/graphics cards to work together in my computer.
For more information on SLI technology, visit http://www.slizone.com/.
For more information on this technology, visit AMD's website.
The user manual of a motherboard that supports one of these technologies will have instructions on how to install dual graphics cards on it, and, if purchased new, the graphics cards themselves should have come with installation instructions.
I haven't provided links to pages containing BIOS beep-code information, because the links keep changing or the sites die.
Using a web search phrase such as "bios beep codes" should produce links that lead to that information.
Note that if you want to connect your gaming PC to a TV set or projector, you must make sure that the video card has an output port that matches the TV set's or projector's input port. Most video cards suitable for gaming have standard analog D-sub VGA, digital DVI, and S-video outputs, but some TV sets and projectors only have what is called a Component input port that requires a Component output port on the video card. Only some AGP video cards have a Component out port, however, most PCI Express cards have one.
Most video-card manufacturers provide a one-year or two-year warranty for their products, but at the time of writing this it was worth noting that Asus, Leadtek, PNY, Gainward and MSI provided excellent three-year warranties. Warranty cover changes constantly, so you should consult the manufacturer's website to find out what the warranty policy is for a particular product.
Visit the Warranties page on this site for more information on them.
Not that any graphics card that is supported by Windows Vista or Windows 7 can play a DVD movie because those versions have inbuilt DVD support. Any version of Windows Vista that provides the Media Center supports DVD playback and the version of Windows Media Player that is installed with Vista can burn data to the various recordable DVD discs. Windows Movie Maker in Vista and Windows 7 can be used to make DVD movies.
However, no version of Windows currently supports Blu-ray disc playback, so third-party software is required, such as Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 (or higher version). Most Blu-ray drives come with a cut-down version of PowerDVD that doesn't provide all of the controls, such as fast-forward or rewind, made available by the full version.
Ashampoo Burning Studio Free is excellent free Blu-ray disc-burning software, which doesn't provided Blu-ray playback, but the free DAPlayer by Digiarty Software webpage says that it does.
Hardware and software DVD decoding are the two options that enable the playing of DVD movies. The system will, of course, require DVD-ROM drive that can only play or access DVD discs or a DVD writer to play the discs.
Hardware decoding is provided by a video card that supports DVD playback, which most recent cards do, with the more recent graphics cards capable of decoding high-definition video, thereby relieving the PC's processor from having to do the work. The most common Application Programming Interface (API) for GPU-accelerated video decoding is the component of DirectX called DxVA (DirectX Video Acceleration for Microsoft Windows.
If your video card supports DVD playback, which all recent cards do, and your PC runs Windows XP, which doesn't support DVD playback, all you need to play DVD movies is a decent DVD player program such as PowerDVD by CyberLink. This program has the same features as a home DVD player, including DTS and Dolby sound decoding, and it claims to be compatible will all DVD/CD disks and drives. Other well-reviewed free DVD players are VLC called FusionSoft DVD, which is to be found on most freeware sites. You should be able to locate their websites or download sites by conducting a web search.
You should be able to determine if your make and model of video card supports DVD playback by looking up the information provided by the manufacturer's site. Information on how to identify a video card is provided near the top of this page.
If your video card does not support DVD playback, then you are advised to upgrade your video card in order to play a DVD movie on your computer. Software DVD decoding packages are available, but the hardware decoding provided by a video card is by far the superior option, especially if you have a slowish processor (running at under 1GHz).
Note that most current video cards costing around £40 or more support DVD playback.
A company that I know of does a great deal of video editing. Its staff use a digital camcorder to shoot video footage, which is downloaded on to a computer using a FireWire connection in the AVI format. When the video has been edited using specialised video-editing software, the Windows Media Encoder is used to compress it into the Windows Media Format (WMF), because this has been found to produce the best compression-to-quality ratio. The computer being used runs an Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz processor (a relatively slow processor compared to the fastest AMD and Intel offerings currently available), 256MB of DDR RAM, and a 40GB SCSI hard disk drive that runs at 10,000 rpm, with the Windows 2000 SP2 operating system installed.
For editing video, the capabilities of the software package is as important as the speed and capabilities of the hardware. Video files can be enormous, and can use as much RAM as any system has, so the more hard-disk-drive space and RAM the system has the better, but, as the example above shows, you can use as little as 256MB of DDR RAM and a 40GB hard disk drive.
Adobe Photoshop Elements is probably the best general-purpose image editor currently available (December 2010). It doesn't provide the most features, but it does provide almost everything that most non-professional photographers require and is very much cheaper than Photoshop.
If you are interested in learning how to edit digital photos, the following articles are good places to start.
The art of digital photo editing -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/4954954.stm
Photo-editing masterclass -
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/general/220350/photo-editing-masterclass
Priced at only £45.00 in March 2011, Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0 is probably the best video-editing software for most home users and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 is probably the most sophisticated video-editing software available for Windows PCs.
The free version of the DivX player installs missing codecs that may be required to play video files in the .avi format.
You can obtain the DivX MPEG 4 player for Windows here - http://www.divx.com/.
Unless the BIOS programmers have purposefully not allowed access to them, you can usually set the AGP modes in the BIOS setup. There is a specific setting in the BIOS (usually enabled by default) that enables USB support, which is required to make full use of the AGP mode. The most common AGP BIOS settings are - Init Primary Display - PCI/AGP, AGP 1x/2x/4x/8x Support, and the Aperture Size. You should be able to find out where these settings are in your BIOS by consulting your motherboard's manual. Below are the AGP BIOS settings for the Abit KT7 motherboard that is available for both the Athlon and Pentium 4 platforms. If you want to have most of a motherboard's settings set in the BIOS, buy an Abit board.
There are several PCI-E settings in the BIOS, all of which probably make little or no sense to anyone except PC gaming enthusiasts and experts on BIOS settings. There is usually very little information about what the settings do and whether or not they should be enabled, disabled, or what the optimal settings are. For example, in an MSI motherboard manual, the setting PCI-E Maximum Payload size is described as "Sets the PCI Express maximum payload size." Other PCI-E settings are: PCIE Spread Spectrum, PCIE Clock (PCI-E bus clock frequency in MHz), and SLI Broadcast Aperture, which can only be enabled or disabled, and is found only in the BIOS of motherboards with two x16 PCI Express slots for two video cards operating in SLI mode.
The best way to find out what a particular setting is all about is to use the term as a web search enclosed within double quotation marks.
If you don't want to find out what any of the settings do, just leave them as they are, or try using the option that has a name such as Load Optimised Defaults or Auto Configuration with Optimal Settings, to use the settings that the motherboard's manufacturer has deemed are the optimal settings.
An important difference between the PCI and the AGP and PCI Express buses is that an AGP and PCI Express video standards allow the use of main system memory for image texturing, which is not possible for a PCI video card. All of the PC standards are either constantly developing or are being replaced by more advanced standards. The AGP standard is no different. It is currently being replaced by the PCI Express standard. The AGP standard has reached up to 8x mode (8 times as fast as the 33MHz PCI bus speed). It is capable of transferring data at more than 2GB per second. To take full advantage of this new high-speed standard a new type of processor was required - the AMD Athlon XP and the Intel Pentium 4. Since AGP video cards require USB to be installed in order to function in full AGP mode, it's possible to use an early AGP card in a pre OSR 2.0 version of Windows 95 that does not support USB, but it will only function in PCI mode. - That is, minus the extra image texturing that only the AGP and PCI Express standards can provide. The original FAT 16 version of Windows 95 cannot use a USB port, because the USB update from Microsoft only works on FAT 32 versions, the first of which was Windows 95 OSR 2.0. You have to install the update in order to be able to use USB ports with this version. Windows 95 OSR 2.1 has the USB update built into it, so an AGP card installed in a system running it will fully support the AGP standard. Windows 98 supports USB and AGP fully, as does any version of Windows that was introduced after Windows 98, such as Windows 2000 and Windows XP. If you want to use a USB device, you should be using Windows 98/2000/XP, because all of the Windows 95 versions of USB are buggy. Click USB for more information on the subject on this site.
If you want easy access to masses of information on PCI, AGP, PCI Express, video/graphics cards in general, or a particular make and model of graphics card, just use a suitable web search term. - For example, enter pci graphics cards, agp, pci express, or grahics cards, or the make/model of a graphics card, etc.
Graphics card and graphics-related problems & solutionsClick here! to go to the section of this site that deals with video card and graphics-related problems and their solutions. |
TV tuners connect to desktop and laptop PCs through a variety of interfaces. Internal TV tuner cards that are installed inside a desktop PC fit into PCI and PCI Express (PCI-E) x1 slots on the motherboard. The TV tuners that are installed as external devices are easier to install because they just plug into a USB 2.0 port or into a PC Card slot on a laptop. Visit Expanding a laptop's capabilities with PC Cards on this website for information on the two types of PC card. Most current laptops use CardBus or the newer ExpressCard/54 PC Cards. CardBus is the 32-Bit version of PC Card technology that is being replaced by the ExpressCard standard. Some laptops support both types, but most only support one type, so it is important to buy a TV tuner that your laptop supports.
The AGP graphics standard has been superseded by the PCI Express standard. Some AGP video/graphics cards, such as the Sapphire All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro, and some PCI Express video/graphics cards have integrated TV tuners that can, inter alia, accelerate DVD playback and allow video/image capture and editing.
Using a separate USB TV tuner that gives a PC monitor the ability to tune into televisions broadcasts is now the preferred method. These tuners can be provided by the manufacturer of the monitor, or by a third-party manufacturer. Examples of manufacturers of TV tuners are Startech, Trust and Avermedia.
TV tuners come with a mini aerial that is suitable for use on a desk or when travelling if you can get it to work. I have never got the indoor aerial to work when a rooftop aerial worked perfectly well, so it's advisable to search for reviews of a particular USB tuner to find out what the situation is with regard to the aerial if you intend to rely on it. TV reception always requires an aerial, so if the indoor aerial doesn't work, you will have to connect it to a rooftop aerial. If you don't have a spare aerial socket, you can use a splitter to divide the signal. Note that if you are using dual TV tuners then an aerial lead must be connected to each of them.
Most TV tuners have the ability to record broadcasts and can use a feature called time shifting, which means that the program you are watching is recorded as you watch it. You can therefore, pause it and then resume watching it as you please. However, note that they vary considerably in how easy they are to use. Some TV tuners (but not all of them), have the ability to record programmes on one channel while watching a program on another channel. Some TV tuners (analog/digital tuners) can access both terrestrial analog and digital broadcasts, but others can only access analog or digital broadcasts.
If you use a PCI, AGP or PCI Express graphics card to watch television, the computer has to be switched on. You have to use an external adapter in order to watch television with the computer switched off. It would, of course, have to be connected to a TV set. You can find them by searching for external tv tuners in a web search engine.
A PCI or PCI Express TV tuner card will be able to handle digital or analog (analogue) broadcasts, but not both unless it is an analog/digital tuner. An analog TV tuner card in the UK can only pick up broadcasts from the five analog terrestrial channels, and a digital card can pick up all of the free digital channels - that is, all of the Freeview channels, the reception of which depends on the strength of the broadcast in your area, which can be discovered on the Freeview website.
Note that a special aerial is required to receive digital terrestrial broadcasts. You cannot use a standard analog aerial. So don't go out and buy a Freeview digital receiver that plugs into the Scart socket on an analog TV set without making sure that you have a suitable aerial. If you want to record television broadcasts via the Freeview digital receiver, it must have two Scart sockets and two Scart cables: one that connects the Freeview digital receiver to the TV set, and one that connects the TV set to the video recorder. Some (cheaper) Freeview digital receivers have only one Scart socket that has to be used to connect it to a TV set.
Digital broadcasts are already compressed, and therefore an MPEG2 file of high quality can be recorded directly to the computer's hard disk drive, but, when recorded, analog broadcasts have to be compressed by the TV tuner card's built-in hardware or by video compression software, otherwise the size of the files of uncompressed data would be huge. If an analog TV tuner card uses built-in hardware to compress the recording of a broadcast, it will be more expensive than a card that uses software to do the compression, and it will be more expensive than a digital card. TV tuner cards - analog or digital - can only receive one channel at a time. You can watch recorded programmes while you're recording the one channel you can receive, but you can't watch one live channel while recording from another live channel. But, because hard disk drives can record and play back at the same time, you can watch a programme that you've recorded while you record a new one. Two TV tuners are required to watch one channel while recording another channel. A single tuner is sufficient for occasional viewing, but if you use your PC for most of your TV viewing, a dual tuner (twin tuner) is the best option, because it allows you to record one programme while watching another, and some dual tuners allow you to record two programmes at the same time.
Analog (analogue) broadcasts are technically superior to digital broadcasts, but digital TV tuners don't produce noise and ghosting affects when the reception is bad. However, digital TV tuners can often cut out altogether. Moreover, most digital TV tuners don't support the capture of analog video, which means that (unless you have a digital TV tuner that can capture analog video) you won't be able to capture VHS video from a VHS video recorder in order to convert it to video files. With the aid of an external antenna, a TV tuner card installed within a computer can provide television and radio reception and act as a video recorder by recording programmes quickly and easily.
Features that make a television set that has them expensive are often found on most basic TV cards, such as picture-in-a-window and time-shifting. The more advanced cards can provide radio reception, and can integrate with various online TV and radio listings to make scheduling and recording a simple procedure. Some analog TV tuner cards can provide FM radio, which can also be recorded. Radio is available via some digital cards via digital TV audio services such as Sky in the UK, but you should check that the software for a particular card supports it. It is not to be confused with digital audio broadcasting (DAB), which is a dedicated digital radio service. A dedicated card is necessary to receive it.
Most, but not all TV tuners come with a remote control, so if you want one included, check the specifications of the product on its manufacturer's site or search for reviews before you make a purchase. TV tuner software that is provided with the product allows you to change channels, set up recordings, and its Electronic Program Guide (EPG) provides information on the programmes that are going to be broadcasted. The best digital TV tuners have an EPG that shows the programmes coming up over the next week. However, note that some EPGs don't work at all. Search for reviews of a particular TV tuner before you buy it to find out if its EPG is any good. Note that analog TV signals don't include programme information, however, some TV tuners allow you to download the information from an online service. Recording from a television source requires plenty of hard-drive storage space, because even compressed video recording consumes vast amounts of disk space. Compression of the recordings is essential. Digital TV tuner cards are the best for this because digital broadcasts are already compressed and can therefore be recorded straight to a hard disk drive.
The most practical format to use is MPEG2, which provides excellent quality and reasonable file sizes. Digital TV broadcasts are in the MPEG2 format, making it easy to record them to a hard disk drive, from where they can just as easily be burned to recordable CD/DVD disks. Analog TV tuner cards must compress the video-stream themselves. Some analog cards have hardware that does the compression, but most use software compression, which makes use of the computer's processor, that won't be in any way problematic for a modern high-speed processor running at a speed of 1GHz or higher.
You should also make sure that your PC provides the minimum hardware specification to run a particular tuner. For example, most current digital only, analog/digital tuners, and twin tuners require a video/graphics card that supports DirectX 9.
Using the search query usb tv tuners in a web search engine will locate links to local vendors. Price-comparison sites are worth visiting to get an idea of the price variations.
If you are planning on upgrading to a version of Windows 7, it requires a graphics card that supports DirectX 9. If the computer doesn't support DirectX 9, Windows 7 will only be able to start in Safe Mode. If that condition is met, you can upgrade a computer to Win7 that has a purchase date going back as far as 2002.
The Windows Media Center, which allows you to use one or more TV tuners, is added to the system via Gadgets in Win7, which you access by right-clicking an empty space on the Desktop. Gadgets are one of the options in the menu that presents itself. Win7 no longer has the Sidebar that Windows Vista had enabled by default; you have to add its features via Gadgets.
Click here! to visit an article on this site called Using an LCD computer monitor as a TV, and using an LCD TV as a PC monitor.
Note well that installing a TV tuner card can be problematic and might not be possible at all, depending on the other hardware the card has to work with.
Click here! to read a Q&A on this site called: Why can't I install a Hauppauge TV tuner card?
You can conduct a web search to find product information and reviews for a particular make/model of USB TV tuner adapter or external TV tuners that work independently of a computer.
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