Now that New Zealand’s very own Freeview digital TV platform is all set for a launch on May 2 it got me thinking about the humble TV tuner card again. I’ve had one of these toys in my PC for years on and off, but to be honest it’s always been bit of a gimmick. A toy. Something I’d get a kick out of for a few days then never use again. However, now that free to air digital TV is about to begin broadcasting and my Windows Vista equipped home PC (dual booting with XP I might add… I’m still not ready to switch fully to Vista) has the wonderful (mostly) Media Centre functionality built-in, I thought it’d be cool if I could finally combine all the technology in my house in the way that Microsoft intended (well, without all that DRM rubbish anyway) and in a manner I want.

Here’s the set up, I have an Xbox 360 in the lounge that is connected wirelessly to my Vista Media Centre PC in the spare room. If I add a digital TV tuner card to the mix I should in theory be able to stream that TV feed to the lounge via the Xbox 360 since it of course doubles as a Media Centre Extender device.

That’s the theory anyway because there are a few digital potholes to avoid on the road to broadcast bliss.

First, as I’ve discovered in early tests, Vista doesn’t like all TV tuner cards (when it comes to analog TV signals at least). Your old analog tuner card that worked perfectly under XP may not work under Vista. It’ll install fine, it just won’t find any signals.

Second, satellite based digital TV (DVB-S) like we’re getting in New Zealand (through a dish on your roof) isn’t compatible with Vista’s Media Centre. No, Vista only likes terrestrial (DVB-T) digital broadcasts, the type you can receive through an ordinary UHF aerial. DVB-T is on the cards for New Zealand but not until 2008. Fortunately some DVB-S cards can apparently trick Vista into thinking it’s getting a DVB-T feed. We’ll see how that goes when my first batch of review cards arrives.

Third, there’s no electronic programming guide. Even though Microsoft were demonstrating a working EPG using a test feed of Canwest channels (TV3 and C4) at their glitzy Vista launch in Wellington back in January, there’s still no official guide.

So keep an eye on the Hot Products blog because amongst the regular selection of new and interesting tech posts, I’ll be making regular updates on my progress. Feel free to offer any advice if you’ve tried this path yourself. I’m particularly interested in hearing which TV tuners work best with Vista.