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Tweaking Tips: Set Up Your PC for Multimedia Entertainment

You've upgraded for power, but what about for pleasure? Go for pure entertainment with these upgrades.

>> Bring HDTV to your PC. A TV tuner card such as the $99 ADS Tech InstantHDTV Pro can delivers high-def TV to your desktop by capturing analog and digital over-the-air TV signals. The bundled BeyondTV Express software automatically records shows for later viewing. ATI's new TV Wonder 650 ($129) captures analog and digital TV signals, and has an FM radio tuner.

>> Step up to Big-League sound. Hearing TV audio on a PC over substandard speakers is like listening to wet cardboard get whacked with a stick. Klipsch's $100 ProMedia 2 Ultra speakers are a big improvement. The two-speaker set lacks the vein-busting bass of more-expensive models equipped with subwoofers, but they generate clear, sharp sound. You'll still need a decent sound card (most integrated PC sound devices don't qualify). The $79 Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Roadie is a USB audio card the size of a playing card that can drive up to 7.1-channel surround-sound speakers. It also supplies digital connectors to use with a home theater system.

>> Get surround sound (almost) without antagonizing others. If you want surround sound but some people you share your life with don't, LTB's USB M headphones will help you coexist: The six speakers built into the $79 headphones don't work as well as a true surround-sound speaker set, but they won't have people banging on the walls, either. And since they plug straight into a USB port, they act as their own sound card. An included microphone allows you to use the headphones to make VoIP phone calls.

Richard Baguley

Robert Luhn is an El Cerrito, California-based technology and science writer who enjoys uninstalling Windows. Richard Baguley is a freelance writer based in Vallejo, California.