- Standard (Broadcast standard)
Standard defines which digital television transmission type(s) the adapter card can receive. The choices are DVB-T, DVB-S, DVB-S, and ATSC .
- Conax (Integrated Conax card reader)
Conax is a form of encryption method used by several European pay-TV operators. Without Conax reader, those channels can't be accessed, as the authentication car provided by pay-TV operator can be read only by Conax reader.
- CIs (Number of CI slots)
CI stand for Common Interface module and is a standardized interface for connecting different kinds of encryption methdods to digital receivers. In order to view a encrypted channel you need to connect a conditional access module (CAM) in to the CI.
- Type (Connection type)
TV tuners can be connected via PCI-bus, PCIe (PCI Express) bus, FireWire or USB/USB2. The last two alternatives are used by external digital TV tuners.
- Analog (Includes analog tuner)
If the TV card has an analog tuner, it can be used to receive analog television broadcasts as well.
- HDTV (MPEG-2 HDTV support)
If the card is to be used for receiving MPEG-2 encoded HDTV (High-Definition Television) broadcasts, it needs to support this feature.
- HDTV (MPEG-4) (MPEG-4 HDTV support)
If the card is to be used for receiving MPEG-4 encoded HDTV (High-Definition Television) broadcasts, it needs to support this feature.
- Remote (Remote control)
Some adapters come with a remote control, which can be used to control the television card (via a viewing software) as well as other sofware.
- MPEG-2 decoder (Integrated MPEG-2 decoder chip)
MPEG-2 is the most commonly used format in digital television broadcasts, and it is in use in DVB as well as ATSC broadcasting. It is possible to transfer both standard definition and high definition programming in MPEG-2 format. If the adapter does not contain an MPEG-2 decoder, the video stream is decoded using the computer's own CPU.
- MPEG-4 decoder (Integrated MPEG-4 (or AVC) decoder chip)
MPEG-4 is more sophisticated and efficient set of compression standards as its predecessor, MPEG-2, but is not as commonly used. It is used mostly in high definition (HD) satellite programming. If the adapter does not contain an MPEG-4 decoder, the video stream is decoded using the computer's own CPU.
- VideoIn (Analog video in)
If the adapter is equipped with VideoIn connector, it is possible to feed video from an external source and capture the video in to digital format.
