HDTV cards for the computer

[eagleskickass]

I was reading somewhere that these are available and are only about $170 at the moment. While im not really looking at getting one i would be interested if anyone knows the answers to the following questions.

a) Would the picture be better on a 17in monitor than a medium size(bout 40-55cm i think) television screen?
b)My housemate who is a computer science student(but doesnt know about HDTV cards) says TV input cards sometimes struggle in computers because of the RF? interference. Is this the case with HDTV cards in computers?
c) would a HDTV card enable me to watch thats sportsvision thingy channel 9 are launching on my computer
d)What sort of an antenna would i need, would one of those little antennas you can buy be suffice or would i more than likely need to plug into the antenna on the roof?
e)are set top boxes on TV's better in general or are HDTV cards better in general

If anyone knows more about this topic id be interesting in hearing it. Im not necessarily wanting to get digital now but in the next couple of years i will be hopefully.

 

[Desredandwhite]

a) The resolution is action more likely to be better on a 17" CRT monitor. Unless you have one of the handful of HD models in the country, your telly will only display 576 lines of resolution, far from the 720 minimum needed for HD - a computer monitor would do that fairly easily I'd say.

b)TV input cards DO have problems with RF interference if there's dodgy shielding.. same with soundcards etc. Being digital though, it's unlikely to make much difference to the picture unless the interference is so bad it's unwatchable.

c) to be honest, I'm not sure.

d) The better your antenna, the more likely you are to have an uninterrupted picture. The bunny ears MIGHT do, if the reception is already pretty good.

e) I haven't compared them directly, but I would think a tuner is pretty much a tuner. I have a HD STB (but only a SD TV). It's still pretty damn good though

 

[eagleskickass]

Another question i just realised, there's 2 forms of digital TV yes? Standard and High definition? STandard would play on a normal TV i presume but costs an arm and a leg, high would only play on a special TV or on a computer monitor?

When i go for one ill more than likely try the computer, shall wait for prices to come down a bit though me thinks.