by Felicia Spencer

Created on: August 26, 2008   Last Updated: April 16, 2011

You're in the market, and you're scanning the aisles. You're searching for the latest TV Capture Card for your computer, but you don't know where to begin. Many TV Capture Cards allow you to to send a video or TV signal to your Computer. However, there are a many different functions on each TV Capture Card, but which one is the right one for you?

You'll also need to know what kind of hardware your computer has before installing any of these cards into your computer. You can call your computer's manufacturer to get this information, if you don't already know this information.

You'll need to know the different ways to record using a Capture card. At the moment they have the external, internal ,and external FireWire devices for these TV Capture Cards. The external card can be attached to your USB 2.0. port, and internal cards will fit into your P.C.I. slot located inside your computer on the motherboard. The External card is the tool you'll need if you don't want to manually install any components inside the computer. Here's a list of some of the most popular TV Capture Cards that they have to offer.

If your just looking for a card that will allow you to record both TV, and Video footage, then a standard TV or Video Capture Card will do. You can record analog from a TV, DVD player/recorder, VCR. or even Camcorder. Once you've recorded the footage that you need, then you can send the recorded programs to your computer's hard drive. This card holds no additional features, and will only have S-Video and Composite inputs to record Video and Audio. Therefore you can not impart a digital signal or a capture for coaxial cable. Many of these cards also provide FM radio reception as well.

Another type of capture card that you may be interested in is the TV Tuner card.

The TV Tuner Capture Card captures TV from a coaxial cable input and tunes the channels available from your cable company or from an antenna. One of the best features of this product is that it can pause or rewind live TV. This is also a good card to have if you're recording one show, but you want to watch something altogether different on TV. This card comes with analog inputs as well as coaxial cable input. You can normally get a packaged deal that includes both the TV Capture Card, as well as the Video Capture Card.

There's also the Video only Capture Card that's used mainly if you want to do some editing, after you've recorded your program. These cards capture with IEEE1394 (Firewire) inputs from digital camcorders. There's also the cards that will allow you to use these Video only cards as a means of surveillance. These cards produces a higher image quality as well as better resolution. This Capture card is relatively inexpensive, and it'll give you a chance to edit the recordings that you have.

Basically you'll have to know what type of recording that you want to perform before you buy and install a TV Capture Card into your computer. You'll also want to make sure that the Capture Card is compatible with your computer's operating system, especially when you purchase the internal P.C.I. card. First know what type of recording that you'll need before you take that stroll down the aisle where all the Capture Cards are kept. Once you've accomplished this, then you're well on your way to recording with a purpose.

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