How to Connect an External TV Tuner Card to a Desktop

Last Updated: June 4, 2020

In this article, we will learn how to connect an external Television tuner card to your desktop, such that when you power on the tuner card, you can watch TV and when you power it off, you are back to your normal desktop (running any operating system).

Steps

1
Open up the box packing the TV tuner card, its remote and a few cables.
2
Plug out the speaker jack from your sound-card (which is usually located at the back of the CPU cabinet).

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3
Insert the cable(which has a similar jack like your speaker's jack that was plugged into the sound card) that came along with the packaging in the place of the speaker jack into your sound card.
4
The other end of this cable should be plugged into the "Sound-out" socket of the TV tuner card.
5
The speaker jack should be plugged into the "Sound-In" socket of the TV tuner card.
6
Plug out the monitor display cable from the back of the CPU cabinet and plug it into the TV tuner card. The socket on the card looks similar to the one on the CPU cabinet.
7
Now, take the other cable that had come bundled with the tuner card and plug one of its end into the monitor socket on the CPU cabinet.(The plug looks similar to the plug on your monitor cable).
8
Plug the other end of this cable into the "VGA-Out" socket of the tuner card.
9
Take the power adapter that came bundled with the card and plug it into a power source.
10
The output cable of the power adapter needs to be plugged into the "Power-In" socket of the tuner card.
11
Insert the terrestrial antenna jack into the antenna socket of the card.
12
Switch on the entire setup. (In some cases, you could hear a beeping sound from the speakers).
13
Use the remote control bundled with the card and make sure it has proper batteries in it.
14
Press the power button and the desktop monitor should show some display resembling a disturbed TV transmission.
15
Treat the setup like a regular TV and tune the channels.
16
Turn the TV off, and you can continue working on your desktop normally.

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Community Q&A

Question

How many channels will be available?

Community Answer

This depends on how you get your signal. This will usually not work with a cable connection as the channels are encoded. If you use an antenna, go to tvfool.com or antennaweb.org to check which channels are in your exact location. Then (and only then), see what kind of antenna would reach that far. The general rule is the farther away the signal is, the farther from the ground you should get.
Question

How do I connect a set top box to an LED monitor with an HDMI cable?

Community Answer

It depends if your monitor has a HDMI input. If it doesn't, then you could get an adapter.
Question

I don't have a CPU. Can I tune the TV with only a monitor?

Community Answer

No, a desktop has to have a CPU unless it's on an Apple TV. If its a PCU, put it in the USB plugholes. If it's on the Apple computer, behind the screen are the holes where you can plug a USB.
Question

How many signals can connect on my laptop?

Community Answer

As many as your laptop can use. You can go to your laptop's manufacturing website (like Apple.com for Mac users) and check your laptop's specifications.
Question

Can I use a monitor to DTH through VGA to an RCA cable?

Community Answer

No, it won't work. You will need a TV tuner for that. I'm currently using a external tuner to watch TS SD on my monitor.