I am going to be helping a friend purchase and set up a Vista Media Center computer.  He uses Time Warner Digital Cable.  I have been reading various posts on the forum and I seem to be getting more confused!  I realize some of the posts are old and do not contain current information about hardware that might now be available.

What he wants to do is be able to connect the cable to his computer and be able to have a guide and scheduled/record programs.  He also would like to capture home videos off of his camcorder to edit/archive. 

We would like some guidance as what currently available hardware we should be looking for to do this.

Thanks

If you go the cablecard route, you have to buy a prebuilt, specially approved machine with that capability.

What is the difference between the Digital Cable TV Tuners and the Cable card?

Do the Digital Cable TV Tuners work without needing a digital receiver (can I connect the cable directly into the tuner card?)

krvic:

What is the difference between the Digital Cable TV Tuners and the Cable card?

Do the Digital Cable TV Tuners work without needing a digital receiver (can I connect the cable directly into the tuner card?)

Three choices:

1.)  Any PC with an analog tuner card, and you can record any stations in Standard Def but not High Def.  This will not work once Cable companies drop the analog signals, as far as I understand.

2.)  Any PC with a QAM capable tuner card, and you can record HD locals only, and any other channels that are not encrypted.  This would be the way you have to go if your provider has no analog signals, such as Verizon FIOS TV.

3.)  To be able to record ALL HD, you must buy a Cable Card PC, which comes with ATI Digital Tuners using cable cards.  You rent the cable cards for $3 a month.  However, cable companies that have HD channels on SDV, Switched Digital Video, channels, cannot be currently received by cable card users.  You want to go with FIOS TV service to ensure you can get all your channels.

-D

I've never heard of a digital cable tuner. You'll have to use the outputs on your cable box and connect it to the input on your tv tuner. It will be an analog signal and no HD. You might be thinking of an OTA HDTV tuner.

1.)  Any PC with an analog tuner card, and you can record any stations in Standard Def but not High Def.  This will not work once Cable companies drop the analog signals, as far as I understand.

-D

I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that those of us with analog tuner cards will still be able to get analog reception after Feb. 2009. I've spoken with a number of techs at Cox and while they admit QAM is not guaranteed, they say as long as you have a cable connected to your tv (without an HD reciever) you're fine. 

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Thanks for the replies - great information!

MitchSchaft:

I've never heard of a digital cable tuner. You'll have to use the outputs on your cable box and connect it to the input on your tv tuner. It will be an analog signal and no HD. You might be thinking of an OTA HDTV tuner.

i think the confusion comes from about ten years back with the introduction of "digital cable boxes" verus analog cable boxes that touted "digital picture".  But they were simply the same channels just now compressed so they could fit 3 "digital" channels in space of one analog channel allowing them tooffer more pay-per-view channels and those junk channels that they bundle in with few channels that people actually want.

most people dont seem to realize that the cable companies are now using the same modulation scheme (QAM) for all of their HD and premium channels with the difference being that the premium channels are encrypted while the local HD channels are sent unencrypted.  I guess the issue is that people seem to think cablecard is only needed for HD channels and that everything else can be tuned through some other means because they arent HD.

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pcostanza:

I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that those of us with analog tuner cards will still be able to get analog reception after Feb. 2009. I've spoken with a number of techs at Cox and while they admit QAM is not guaranteed, they say as long as you have a cable connected to your tv (without an HD reciever) you're fine. 

Within the next 3 months all analog channels with Verizon FIOS TV will be gone, requiring either a QAM tuner on your TV or a cable box.

Comcast and RCA have already started dropping analog signals in certain areas:  http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/07/07/rcn-and-comcast-dropping-analog-cable-en-mass/

All cable companies will at some point have to pull analog channels to be able to have more room for additional QAM/HD channels. 

It will happen, it's just matter of when not if.

 

-D

Your cablebox will output analog through the RCA jacks, so our tuners are safe if you have a box. Memphis has no plans to go all digital, so I'm still safe from out of the wall.

I am looking at the ATI TV Wonder HD 600 (http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonder600/pci/index.html).

It indicates it has a QAM tuner.  I assume then that this would fit the bill for 2.)  Any PC with a QAM capable tuner card, and you can record HD locals only, and any other channels that are not encrypted. then?

As I am understanding this then, this tuner would be able to be connected directly to digital cable and be able to receive/record unencrypted channels without the need for going through a separate digital receiver box??

Hey, I'm kind of in the same situation.

I want to hook up my Cox digital cable box (looks like this only I have the 2224 version) to this tuner card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116007

and then to my 50" Panasonic plasma.

I want to be able to view/record all of the digital cable channels and the over the air HD channels if possible.

I'm thinking about going from the wall cable into the cable box and then from the RF out of the cable box to the tuner card and then DVI to HDMI from the video card to the televison, sound possible? I'm just not sure about the high definition.

I also don't want to have to worry about anything once Feb. 2009 rolls around if that's an issue.

Phew, I'm in a little over my head here. I know quite a bit about computers themselves, but once you throw these televisions in there I'm gone. Thanks for any help you guys can give!

krvic:

I am looking at the ATI TV Wonder HD 600 (http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonder600/pci/index.html).

It indicates it has a QAM tuner.  I assume then that this would fit the bill for 2.)  Any PC with a QAM capable tuner card, and you can record HD locals only, and any other channels that are not encrypted. then?

As I am understanding this then, this tuner would be able to be connected directly to digital cable and be able to receive/record unencrypted channels without the need for going through a separate digital receiver box??

"Any PC with a QAM capable tuner", That is not really an accurate statement.  There are lots of QAM tuners that will not currently work in Media Center.  QAM tuning with anything other than an ATI OCUR tuner is not supported supported directly by Microsoft.  Several tuner manufacturers have developed drivers that trick Media Center into thiniking they are OTA tuners.  This allows them to work properly in Media Center for the unencrypted channels.  The most popular of these is the HDHomerun, they did it first & have the easiest solution.  Avermedia & Hauppauge have released beta drivers that work with SOME of their models.  I am not aware of a similar driver for ATI so I don't think that card will work.

To complicate this further there are rumors of some sort of an update to Media Center that will give us native QAM support in Media Center.  No one is sure when this will be released & at least for now it will only be released with a new PC purchase.

SKEvil:

Hey, I'm kind of in the same situation.

I want to hook up my Cox digital cable box (looks like this only I have the 2224 version) to this tuner card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116007

and then to my 50" Panasonic plasma.

I want to be able to view/record all of the digital cable channels and the over the air HD channels if possible.

I'm thinking about going from the wall cable into the cable box and then from the RF out of the cable box to the tuner card and then DVI to HDMI from the video card to the television, sound possible? I'm just not sure about the high definition.

I also don't want to have to worry about anything once Feb. 2009 rolls around if that's an issue.

Phew, I'm in a little over my head here. I know quite a bit about computers themselves, but once you throw these televisions in there I'm gone. Thanks for any help you guys can give!

This solution may work but it is not standard & is not directly supported by Microsoft. First, see my post above about QAM.  The card you referenced is a dual NTSC & QAM tuner & is one of the tuners supported by Hauppauge's beta drivers.  I don't own this card so, in theory, this setup should work based on what I know of the card.

Connect your cable coming out of the wall to the QAM port on the tuner.  Configure it using the beta drivers & you should have access to the unencrypted QAM channels for your area, usually your local network stations. These will be in HD

See these two links for info regarding the Hauppauge beta drivers.  People have had mixed results so be warned.

http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2008/05/14/1622759.aspx

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/262919.aspx

Next you need to hook up your cable box to the analog side of the card.  You mentioned using RF, although this will work it is not the best option.  You will see better quality if you can use an S-video cable.  The Hauppauge card supports it, hopefully your cable box does.

Next you will have to hook up the IR emitter to the IR port on the front of your cable box.  You should have gotten 2 IR emitters with you Media Center Remote.  If you don't have the Microsoft remote this model of the HVR 1600 comes with the standard Microsoft remote.

This will allow you to access any of the channels that you pay for but they will not be in HD.

Again the Hauppauge drivers are beta & I would attempt this with some caution.  Another solution would be to get an HDHomerun for the QAM & a separate tuner for the connection to the cable box.

SKEvil:

Hey, I'm kind of in the same situation...

I want to be able to view/record all of the digital cable channels and the over the air HD channels if possible.

That's not going to happen unless you buy a prebuilt, Vista cablecard machine.