Member Avatar for Rion

I was wondering if it would be posible to get a PCI TV tuner and install it while using a regular GPU?
Would it mess anything up? (BTW I have a 7800GT so switching to an ATi AIW isn't going to happen)

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Short answer: yes — a PCI TV-tuner card will normally work alongside a discrete GPU. Replies from and in this thread align with the usual outcome: modern motherboards and OS plug-and-play handle resource allocation so a tuner and a video card can coexist without special changes.

Things to check before buying or installing: confirm a free physical PCI slot and that the tuner you pick supports the broadcast standard used in your region (analog NTSC/PAL, ATSC, DVB, etc.). Verify driver support for your OS — older cards often lack drivers for newer Windows releases — and review whether the card does hardware MPEG encoding (which reduces CPU load) or relies on software encoding (TV tuner card documentation). Understand how your motherboard exposes slots and resources in case you need to try an alternate slot (). For Windows, Broadcast Driver Architecture (BDA) is the common driver model for tuners; manufacturer-supplied BDA drivers are important for reliable operation ().

Quick install checklist: power down and unplug, use an anti-static wrist strap or discharge yourself, seat the card firmly in a PCI slot, boot and let the OS detect new hardware, then install the card vendor drivers and any capture software. After installation, confirm the tuner appears in Device Manager and that the application can see a signal.

If problems appear: try a different PCI slot, update motherboard BIOS and chipset drivers, reinstall the tuner driver, check antenna/cable and regional tuning settings, and watch CPU usage during capture (software encoding can be intensive). If drivers are unavailable for your OS, consider a USB or PCIe tuner with current support.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

i think the answer would be yes to that ? although its been win98 since i done it

Member Avatar for The New Normal

If I understand your question properly, yeah that should work fine, as long as you have an open PCI slot for it.

I have a Pinnacle PCTV DVB-T PCI running with my 7600GT (AGP version) and I've had no problems. Is that what you mean by a 'regular GPU'?

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