TV Tuner cards have existed for quite some time. Before you throw your TV set off the terrace, it would be worth contemplating the fact that most TV Tuner cards can hardly match the quality of any decent TV set. Unlike TV sets, which run on an analog system and do not rely on image precision, computer CRTs have to display images with a lot more detail. In most cases due to the low resolution of broadcasts, the computer CRT cannot display a sharp image. A TV Tuner card has three important components.
Most cards have major problems tuning weak signals, especially when an antenna is the input source.
The overlay area is a part of the video memory which is directly written onto by the TV tuner to display the TV channel. If you do however have the money, a TV card is a cool gadget to have on your computer. Getting your TV card running under Linux is not very difficult. However there is a lack of easily available documentation on the Internet. The standard bttv driver provided with most kernels has limited support for tuner cards.