SABRENT SBT-TVFM TV Tuner/Video Capture/FM Radio PCI Card with Remote Control

One might usually be leary of the lowest-priced version and of a brand name that doesn't splash across television screens; however when we needed to turn one of computers into a part-time television, Sabrent did the job quite well. Set-up was very easy.I cannot speak for all the other features that this card and its software may have; I haven't used them. It was perfectly good for our needs.

I use this Sabrent SBT-TVFM TV Tuner/Video Capture PCI card for our livecam at [...] works great. I've tested the TV and it works great and the quility is great, but that's not why I use this card. I've never tried the FM. I only use it for the capture of our livecam.

All I wanted to do was to be able to see my Security cams. It did that just fine. I could not get it to work with the Honestech TVR driver for Win 2000xp. I took a chance and installed the TV expert for Vista and it worked fine. I still can't use the remote for some reason. FM does not work with TV expert. [...] I'm happy and do not need FM since its streaming over the web right now.CheersWopr

At the beginning it doesn't worked well with the drivers and software on the CD, so I downloaded the Drivers and software from [...], after installation of this drivers and TV Expert software i found an issue, when i up channels the sounds doesn't tune, so I installed just the drivers from the cd and restart the computer, everything works fine after doing this, It took me some time to setup the audio to be controlled from the remote but the card works fine, a suggestion for sabrent.com: change the driver on the website by the ones on the CD.I prefer the software that is on the CD but the remote doesn't work with this software, i think that you can achieved this messing around with the remote control driver. If I find the way of use the software on the CD I'll post my discovery because TV expert software doesn't control the Radio feature.Worth it for the price.

Ah, guilty of pride. Read all the negative reviews and decided that at this price point and with my reasonably good knowledge of the involved technologies it is worth a try. Well, it was not, and my strong advice to others who seek entertainment with this magnificent piece of PRC craftsmanship is: DON’T.Here is a quick synopsis:Tried to install on Win 7 64 bit. The drivers included on the distribution disk are dated ’08. There are a more recent version on the internet somewhere in the forums, dated ’10, which does not work at all. There is yet another version somewhere else, which locks up the PC. There also is a newer Win7 version on the Sabrent tech support, but alas, only for 32 bit OS. Perhaps they figured out that going from 32 to this esoteric, never-heard-of 64bit was double the effort and too much for them to support.The packaged PVR software fails with “failed to configure the TV Tuner” error message. Opened a ticked with the tech support, mostly as a ritualistic step with little expectation of a positive outcome. Still waiting to hear back, just exactly as anticipated.Windows Media Center does not recognize the tuner. Well, no tears here, but it was still indicative to learn that there is no safe fallback option.After much effort (the card goes into its deeper inner self in protest against any configuration it does not like, to which state a reboot is the only remedy), managed to get a picture on VideoLAN VLC. If you are old enough to recall video quality on 1950ies broadcast tubes, that’s about it. A good bit of nostalgia not really useful to watching modern TV. The resolution is horrible, colors are off, and no tweaking with contrast/brightness/gamma controls brings the picture to a plausible level of fidelity. Also, on a couple of occasions, the picture was all checkered boxes and stripes. Nothing changed mechanically- or configuration-wise. A reboot cured in both cases. I was not enthusiastic enough to investigate in detail, but my gut feeling is that somehow it was caused by stressed hardware resources. On a bright note, I shall mention that I never saw anything like that with the other three video cards I had in that machine, under the same – and frequently, much more demanding – loads.However, we’d need to travel even further in time, to the era of silent movies, to fully appreciate the true beauty of this device: no matter what I did, no matter how I tried, there was no sound. The manual suggests that the audio output of the card can be connected directly to the speakers. Not exactly so. The manual also suggests that the same output can be connected to the input of a audio card. Not exactly so, again. Well, let me take it back - it CAN be connected, in that sense that a 3.5mm jack can be fitted into the socket. If the wire is tight enough, you may try to pluck it with your finger: that seems the only way you may get some sound. And I don’t have to state the obvious: the card is not recognized as an audio input device either in the control panel or in the device manager.Maybe it is all the consequence of out-of-date drivers. Maybe I got a faulty card. More likely, though, it is indomitable spirit of human imagination and naïve believe in miracles that prompted me to waste time on attempting, against all better judgment, to try to make a piece of garbage work.… and almost forgot to mention: the remote control is good for training motor dexterity in your fingers, nothing more; an attempt to apply the remote to any of its designated functions turned up to be totally fruitless.Back it goes, to China with love.

I needed my new PCs to have cable TV ability as a backup to an emergency system. Video is very clear and easy to work with. The included software works well. This card works much better than my older ones.

I installed this card in my computer and it never worked for me. I bought it to capture VHS video to my computer to edit and then record to DVD. The VCR would play through the computer but the card could not capture the video. I called manufacturer and, to their credit, told me to send it back. After paying shipping, it just wasn't worth the trouble so it sits in its box in the closet. It is very possible, too, that I didn't know how to correctly configure this capture card. I never hooked up TV to see if it worked or not.

This tv tuner is great! At the begining i have some issues to setup the fm radio and the remote control functions on XP/Vista, but since i've installed the tv tuner on windows 7 everything works perfect! Works great to capture TV or Video sources!