Watching TV on monitor

[mufcfan]

Hi!

I've got a Pinnacle PCTV Stereo and I must say it really didn't worth buying.
So, I'm looking for an external/internal solution to watch TV on my monitor. I've seen external devices that could output on VGA/DVI but they were of course a bit pricy. Another type of external devices are connected with USB but I don't know if they could really produce good picture quality and performance if I recorded with them in mpeg-2. The last option would be a PCI(-E?) solution but after using my card I'm not conviced they could do any better.

I'm thinking about buying something for around $50-75 max. Could you help me with selecting from the above options and choosing a good brand WITH Vista x64 support?
Thanks!

PS: ASUS P5K Pro, C2D E4500, 2x2GB Kingmax 800MHz CL5, Galaxy OC 8600GTS 256MB.

 

[Mohonri]

I've heard the Hauppauge HVR-950 is pretty good. It seems that you don't want a PCI/PCIe card--is that right? I don't know much about the Pinnacle card you have, but there are plenty of other internal tuners that have great picture quality.

 

[mufcfan]

Thanks for you answer!

I've taken a look at the HVR-950 and I found a cheaper USB tuner:
Leadtek WinFast DTV Dongle.
It supports analog cableTV (that's what I need right now) and digital with HDTV and AC3 formats. So it can be a solution for the future aswell.
The problem is that I can't found reviews except for some tuners so I don't know if this leadtek card would worth that ~$50. I've read it's manual but it's not specifically for this model so there's only info about the software. At least there are drivers for Vista x64 on the driver page so it should work properly unlike my Pinnacle.

Anyone out there who could share his/her experience with this Leadtek tuner?