[TheCloudOfSmoke]

Originally Posted by Elliander

I have been looking for something specific, but could never find it on any search...

I have a PCI TV-Card, which came with "Hauppauge WinTV" software which is nice for just watching television, but doesn't have the best compatibility with consoles or even a VCR.

I called them up, and asked them about it, and they basically said that the reason it doesn't work well with consoles is because it actually displays content a few seconds after it enters the computer, and produces some kind of MPEG streaming.

My thought is this: A computer is much more powerful than a television set.

If someone simply tried to emulate a television, so that within the software it all behaves like a Television Set. Where everything that goes into a TV card is displayed in real time, without trying to make it do anything that a TV doesn't do, then it would be possible to play a console game as if it was on a television.

I would also imagine that it would be possible to have a Plugin "pretend" to be a physical VCR with Virtual VHS tapes, so that it could record television and movies to file in real time, if people wanted a little extra.

In addition, current Software limits usage. In addition to needing to process the picture, the TV card can't split a signal so you could watch one channel while recording another. But if it was simply an emulated TV, I would imagine, a TV splitter could also be emulated.

But as far as I can see, the Industry as a whole has ignored the demand to use TV Cards as if it was a TV.

So in short, I'd like to ask if anyone is working on anything like this, or if not, as a conception, if it sounds like it would work?

That's not neccessarily true because analog TVs don't have to do calculations and data transfers of large quantities of information or memory intensive processes. Computers have a lot to do and everything needs to be processed the right way when the computer interprets the analog signal, while a TV receives a signal with no calculations to process since older TVs aren't computers. The only way you're going to get close to accurate speeds is if the computer renders the analog signal in low quality on the computer so it wouldn't have to make more calculations to produce good results. I hope what I said is accurate. Someone correct me if I am not.

Originally Posted by imlost

Er... why would anyone want to emulate a TV on their computer?

I think he's talking about getting the TV tuner on the computer to play in real-time without any delay like a real TV because there is a delay when playing a game unlike what happens on a real TV.