АУДИО И ВИДЕО

Фрэнк Вёлькель,  18 апреля 2000 Страница:   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

General Hardware Requirements

Before you rush out and buy a TV card, check the existing hardware configuration of your PC carefully. The requirements for untroubled TV pleasure on your PC are relatively low-level: a computer with a processor running at least 166MHz (classic Intel Pentium or AMD K6) and at least 16 MB system memory form the minimal requirements. The graphics card plays a decisive role: it should have at least 2 MB video memory and should use DirectX drivers. If this isn't the case then video overlay of the television picture isn't possible. Windows 95/98 or Windows NT can be used as the underlying operating system. Most current TV cards require DirectX 6.x for the installation of the relevant application.

Hardware requirements for the use of a TV card:

1. Processor over 166 MHz (Intel Pentium or AMD K6)
2. At least 16 MB system memory
3. Graphics board with 2 MB video memory (DirectX drivers)
4. Windows 95/98/98SE with DirectX 6.x

Currently, only a few TV cards can be used under Windows 2000. The reason: many manufacturers don't offer device drivers for the new operating system yet. In addition, Microsoft hasn't integrated a standard PAL version TV viewer for Europeans in Windows 2000, despite their original intention. This means that the manufacturers and vendors of TV cards will have no alternative but to develop their own TV viewers. ATI (All in Wonder 128) and Pinnacle (Studio PCTV Pro) have set a good example here and already offer full support for Windows 2000.

Summary

Having taken a look at the basic functionality of TV cards, their design and the hardware requirements for using them, part 2 of this report will be mainly concerned with the numerous freely available add-on services. It will remain exciting as we will touch on hot topics such as RadioMP3 and the flexible use of videotext in our next report.

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Brief Introduction Introduction - What do TV Cards offer? Classification - Which Cards Are on Offer on the Market? How is a TV Card designed and how does it work? Audio and Video Connections Taking a Look at our Test Candidates Features Table General Hardware Requirements Summary  Обсуждение в Клубе Экспертов THG