Are PC tuner cards suppose to be as fast a TV tuners?

[Stridulent]

We just cut cable and are looking for an effective way to have a whole home DVR for OTA. I have an old Avermedia tuner card from around 2005. No matter the software I use, changing channels and going to channels from guide on the PC seems very slow compared to how a normal TV navigates channels when hooked up directly to the antenna.

Is this normal? Would upgrading the tuner card help?

[DVD Phreak]

I don't know the solution for you since I have never used Avermedia products and I don't know much about your PC setup. But I am an advanced PC user who have used Windows PVR software and hardware for many years, and I'm telling you to start looking for a non-PC solution, perhaps a set-top DVR like these. PC DVR solutions are going nowhere. Many of the former popular ones have long been discontinued. Microsoft has just discontinued Media Center for Windows 10 and beyond. Few people used HTPCs to begin with, and fewer and fewer people are doing it now, since the PC and Windows environment is too complicated for most people. Right now, I'm using PC only for recording (with Hauppauge HD-PVR and SageTV), not watching. All my watching is now done on set-top devices like Roku, smartphones, and tablets, which are so much more convenient. Do you know what PC PVRs are made for these days? Go to Hauppauge's website and you will find PVRs for VIDEO GAMES, that's right! That's because playing video games is still something a lot people do on a PC. Those PVRs are made for recording gameplay video to be shared on the Internet. People like us who use PCs for recording TV shows are second-class to that now.