Should I buy a TV tuner from Aldi? (1 Viewer)

[seremify007]

Well, it's pretty cheap- $129 for an external USB2 tv tuner and it seems pretty good... from what I've heard, Aldi/Medion take their warranties very seriously when it comes to computer-gear... and I've always wanted a TV tuner for my PC.

It says here in the catalogue- "External TV Tuner Box, Digital and analogue TV tuner, FM radio, Record directly to your PC or Notebook hard drive, USB 2.0", and judging by the photo it has an external antenna, video inputs (I wanna hook up my Xbox to see how it looks on a 19" LCD), and remote control.

So would you trust Aldi? Is there anything I should look for?

I was looking up TV tuner cards not that long ago but they were $150+... but they used to advertise supporting the Electronic Programming Guide or something like that- anyone want to give me any advice on this stuff?

Thanks for your help- to anyone who read this.

 

[mr_speedy]

you can get an internal hdtv tuner on ebay for 120

 

[soha]

we have alot of stuff from aldi
a t.v a dvd a stereo a mixer a popcorn maker a fairy floss maker a battery charger
um..and they are all great products

i trust aldi and if they have what you need at a good price go for gold
plus tehy have warranty and customer quality policys and shit
go for it

 

[Rafy]

I myself have an internal card, and have found it to be much more convinent than an external box. The Aldi thing sounds decent enough if you are just looking for the basics. Although there is much better out there.

AS for the Electronic Programming Guide, in Australia that can only be obtained through a subscription from a 3rd party company. (The TV networks in Oz have decided that EPGs could contribute to piracy, and therefore have decided not to support them)

 

[seremify007]

Thanks for that Rafy.

As for the box.. i want external because that way i can swap between my mum's pc (i'm pretending to buy it for her)... and my laptop.

Btw have either of you guys had much experience with recording TV onto hard drive? does it have some way of automatically compressing it because i'd imagine raw video footage would be very big ><

And soha, thanks for the advice^^ i've bought a few things from aldi (eg. memory card reader for $13!) which have all turned out to be pretty decent; and i read in the paper that some guy's media centre computer was screwy and ALDI forwarded his complaint to head office, and they issued fixes and everything... it sounds small, but once you deal with a company which doesn't give two hoots about post-sales support (eg. sony), you start to realise how much it's actually worth.

 

[seremify007]

*holds up broken ps2, broken discman, broken minidisc recorder, broken headphones, broken in-earphones, etc..*

They offered to fix my minidisc 1 month after 12-month warranty expired for $250, and i'm like... i paid $500 for it! and it retails for $800 in australia!... *sigh* the in-earphones, most recent thing, those little bits of silicon for ur ear cost $12.50 EACH! i'm like... >__> so in the end i took them from my w800i's box (i was like "good thing i have these")...

 

[seremify007]

Maybe they just don't like me because I always buy stuff overseas and get the International Warranty... *sigh*

Speaking of aldi's products, have u seen the medion phone they are selling, that is the exact replica of samsungs d600 (or is it d500?)

LOL I noticed that too.. I held up my D600 next to the picture... they even have chrome on the earpiece! But there are a few differences... there's an extra 2 buttons on the Samsung (on the face), and on the right side, there's only one button on the Samsung.

Btw it might be a bit more like a D500 in the sense that it looks like there's a small nudge above the d-pad/joystick for you to to slide your thumb to push the phone open.

 

[7th Sign]

I had a digital tv tuner in my comp like 2 years ago was one of the best got it form msy for liek $150...

I never really used it and sodl it second hand like 6 months after purchas for $150

maby check out msy's prices

 

[Phanatical]

*holds up broken ps2, broken discman, broken minidisc recorder, broken headphones, broken in-earphones, etc..*

broken 125cm sony television, one week out of box.

Sony: Because Caucasians are just too damn tall.

 

[equiski]

Your XBOX may be unplayable on this TV Tuner due to the latency. You'll press a button, and the game will appear to react afterwards. Just a thought.

 

[seremify007]

Hmm... that's a bummer. I was hoping that i'd be able to make use of our 19" lcd. Oh well, I think it'll still be nice to watch TV on it, or for hooking up a video camera (should we ever buy one >_> )

 

[equiski]

Who knows, it may be quick enough. Its more of an issue with fighting and FPS games, really.

 

[vizman]

Speaking of aldi's products, have u seen the medion phone they are selling, that is the exact replica of samsungs d600 (or is it d500?)

lol for a second i thought they actually were the samsungs until i saw the price

 

[seremify007]

I still haven't gotten round to buying the TV tuner yet... keep debating whether or not it's going to work.

It claims 'digital TV' so it should work even with a weak signal... I just remember when we used to have an old TV with the Y antenna sticking out we had to constantly move it around to get good picture for various channels. The TV antenna in our roof is good, but the outlet nearby is already in use and I don't feel like spending money buying a splitter + amplifier for the signal.

 

[Collin]

Doesn't Aldi offer a returns policy? If so, just purchase it and if found unsatisfactory, return it before the policy expires.

 

[seremify007]

Just a quick Q before I buy... i'm worried that it's gonna suck because whenever I go out on a whim, I end up buying some crap. Does anyone know if this sorta thing lets you watch full screen video and encode into DivX on the fly? It says it can record TV broadcasts, but I wonder if I HAVE to use their program which could be... dodgy >_>