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EXAM TIP A dedicated A/V computer should have a fast processor and a lot of RAM. You’ll want plenty of hard drive storage space too.

There’s very little you can do if your source material, such as an old video cassette, has degraded. You’re simply not going to get a pristine capture from a damaged source. You can sometimes get better quality by having the heads on the camcorder or player cleaned or by using the camcorder on which the tape was initially recorded.

Missing Codecs

All versions of Windows come with some audio and video codecs installed. The default audio codecs will handle most common music formats, though you’ll need to download the Vorbis codec if you want to use that format. Video codecs are a different animal.

The first clue you might have that your computer doesn’t have the codec to process a video file properly is that the sound will play but no picture will appear. Occasionally, whatever media player you use will tell you that it’s missing a video codec and attempt to go out onto the Internet to download a codec automatically. You can also download a codec or set of codecs manually.

Windows XP makes it easy to see the installed codecs. In Control Panel, open the Sounds and Audio Devices applet. Select the Hardware tab | Audio Codecs and click the Properties button. In the Audio Codec Properties dialog box, select the Properties tab and you’ll see all the installed audio codecs (Figure 20-31).

Figure 20-31 Default audio codecs in Windows XP SP2

Similarly, you can see the video codecs by choosing the Video Codecs option on the Hardware tab. Click through to the Properties tab. Figure 20-32 shows the default video codecs in Windows XP.

Microsoft made the codecs a bit more difficult to find in Windows Vista. In Vista, open Windows Media Player. Press CTRL-M to show the classic menus. Select Help | About Windows Media Player to open the About Windows Media Player dialog box (Figure 20-33).

Click the link for Technical Support Information and Windows will open your default Web browser with a long page showing various multimedia settings. Scroll down the page and you’ll find the audio and video codecs installed (Figure 20-34).

If you don’t have a codec that you need, you can download that specific codec. A great site for codec information is www.fourcc.org.

Figure 20-32 Default video codecs in Windows XP SP2

Figure 20-33 About Windows Media Player dialog box in Windows Vista

You can also download codec packs, such as the Vista Codec Package available at www.afreecodec.com. The packs contain just about everything you need to view and hear content found on the Internet.

Figure 20-34 Viewing audio and video codecs installed in Windows Vista

TV Tuners

With a TV tuner, you can have it all in one package: a computer and the latest TV show as well. Most local stations (in the United States, at least) broadcast high-definition signals, so with the proper TV tuner, you can watch your HDTV without any of the artifacting you see with both cable and satellite feeds. Plus you can make use of typical cable or satellite feeds to watch television as you would with a regular TV. Making it all happen requires four components: a tuner device, an antenna or cable connection, a tuning application, and some sort of program guide. We’ll look at troubleshooting at the end.

Tuner Hardware

TV tuners come in just about every expansion option available for computers: expansion cards that plug into PCI or PCIe slots on the motherboard; PC Card or ExpressCard for portable computers; or Hi-Speed USB for desktop and laptop computers. Figure 20-35 shows a PCIe version of an ATI tuner card.

To install a TV tuner, follow standard installation procedures.

Figure 20-35 ATI TV tuner card

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NOTE TV tuners often include components for video capture, so you can get both devices on one card or expansion device.

To pick up a signal on the TV tuner, just as with a standalone television, you need some source. Most can handle a cable TV connection, for example,