StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Years ago, I used to have a TV card, and these days I'm contemplating a new PC and wondering whether it's worth going for a tv card / digital tv receiver card that I think you can get. I'm attracted to the idea of losing a bulky tv and replacing it with a TFT monitor, also the idea of just using my computer to play DVDs as every DVD player I buy seems to develop faults very quickly.

Is there any good reason not to go for a TV card in replacement of a TV? Obviously we'll still have a TV for general use, but in my own room, it seems like unnecessary space if another option is available.

Noise level and boot time. Apart from that, no, I don't see any drawbacks.

It depends a lot on your location. If you're in one of the countries that are covered well in digital channel guides - go for it, if not then its a more tricky proposition since almost every program that enables you to do cool stuff with TV on your computer requires a good channel guide to be effective - and you might need something like that to enjoy the experience because, depending on the card, tuning (changing channels) can be excruciatingly slow so channel surfing might not be an option.

Using digital freeview windows media center is more than decent iirc.

It's what I intend to do when move out, to cut down on space used up by having to have tv and computer separate.