TV tuner card - need info

[wavinwayne]

I have cable internet. I want to watch cable TV on my PC, preferably in HD (my video card says it's HDTV ready, FWIW). I don't want to record anything, just watch TV.

The card will mount in a PCI (not PCI Express) slot. What is the cheapest way to do this?

 

[eljefino]

There are tons of cards for $10-20 on ebay. Even the cheap ones watch cable just fine; they use the monitor overlay and don't require much for computer resources.

Pay more and you get niceties like a remote control... stupid, yes, b/c you're at the terminal anyway.

Hauppauge makes some nice cards if you ever want to capture old VHS to DVD etc. The PVR-150 rocks. Part of being "nice" is onboard MPEG encoding so if you DO want to capture it still is easy on resources. Plus you can do all the TiVO stuff like pausing live TV. (You can pause the start of a 9pm show, start watching it at 9:20 while it's still recording, and FF the ads)

 

[wavinwayne]

How do I go about watching TV once I've installed a TV tuner card? Do I have to use software that comes with the card?

 

[eljefino]

yup. IIRC vista and XP media center also have tv options.

the cheap cards have a headphone out that loops to the line in on your sound card, so sound passes through. The better ones use software.

 

[blueiedgod]

One thing to remember that most of the TV tuner cards will only go up to certain number of channels. So, if you have HBO or what not that are a higher number channel, you will need to use a TV-tuner card that accepts Cable company's card that is currently sitting in your cable box. Or just use the cable box to feed into the TV-tuner's composite or HDMI input.

 

[wavinwayne]

blueiegod,

I don't have a cable box of any kind in my home. The cable runs straight from the wall to my TV's. I assume this means I don't have any channels that go too high for a TV tuner card to read????

 

[mpvue]

I got a hauppage card (older one, not HD). I use it to record, hardly ever just to watch live. I installed a basic cable splitter, ran one into my modem, the other into the TV card. works great. they packaged some software w/ it also that links to a listing website where you have one click recording.

 

[stogiedude]

You're better off getting one that plugs into a USB port IMO. It can easily go from one PC to another, you don't need to open the computer case. I'm not familiar with the current models available or how much they cost, I imagine $50-$100.

 

[brianl703]

I have a WinTV HVR 1600 and I get all of the broadcast (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc) HDTV channels on Comcast (in ClearQAM). Others are encrypted so I cannot watch them.

It has on-board MPEG2 encoding (used for analog channels) so it takes very little CPU power when recording.

When recording HDTV channels it simply copies the stream right off the cable, it doesn't do any processing at all.

 

[LC]

I use a hauppage card and for software I use free stuff called
ORB just google it. It works great and you can get all your channels.

 

[SrDriver]

I too am looking for a new TV Tuner Card that is supported by Linux.

I have an older card but want the HDTV features.

I am running Linux Mint which is based on Ubuntu.

 

[ATS-V]

Originally Posted By: blueiedgod
One thing to remember that most of the TV tuner cards will only go up to certain number of channels. So, if you have HBO or what not that are a higher number channel, you will need to use a TV-tuner card that accepts Cable company's card that is currently sitting in your cable box. Or just use the cable box to feed into the TV-tuner's composite or HDMI input.


Any more info on Tuner cards that accept a cable card. I haven't seen any of these cards.

 

[brianl703]

Most TV tuner cards tune to at least 800MHz. (Physical cable channel 125).

The channel number shown on your digital (or addressable analog) cable box usually has no relation to it's physical channel number. It's called "channel mapping".

The reason you can't watch most digital cable channels with a TV tuner card is not because the channel is on a frequency that the TV tuner can't tune, it's because it's encrypted.

If cable companies are using encryption to keep limited-basic customers from watching the digital channels, all they need to to is transmit the digital signal on a frequency that the limited-basic filters will block. Encryption isn't required.

 

[blueiedgod]

Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
blueiegod,

I don't have a cable box of any kind in my home. The cable runs straight from the wall to my TV's. I assume this means I don't have any channels that go too high for a TV tuner card to read????


you should be able to get up tp channel 125. Maybe HD, but most likely you would either have to pay for HD package, or use Antenna for HD over the air. Don't expect a computer TV tuner pull in good signal from antenna.

 

[wavinwayne]

Originally Posted By: blueiedgod
Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
blueiegod,

I don't have a cable box of any kind in my home. The cable runs straight from the wall to my TV's. I assume this means I don't have any channels that go too high for a TV tuner card to read????


you should be able to get up tp channel 125. Maybe HD, but most likely you would either have to pay for HD package, or use Antenna for HD over the air. Don't expect a computer TV tuner pull in good signal from antenna.


Since my cable only goes to channel 98 anyway, this should not be a problem. As far as receiving any HD channels over the air, I don't expect to; we are 40 miles from the nearest TV transmitter, blocked on 3 sides by mountains. I can't pick up the "local" channels with my old rabbit ear antenna TV, so I wouldn't expect any better from a tuner card/antenna combo. No biggie to me, though; I just want the same cable channels that show on my TV, to show up on the computer.

Thanks to everyone for all the good info. BTW, I emailed Tiger Direct, and they told me this is what I need: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3390586&CatId=1427
Comments welcome.

 

[brianl703]

Cable systems usually (if not always) transmit the over-the-air HD channels (PBS, CBS , NBC...the local stations) in the clear (non-encrypted) (This may even be an FCC requirement...I know that Comcast and Cox both transmit the local HD channels in the clear).

This means that if you connect your HDTV tuner card to the cable line, you should get the local station HD channels, without paying extra for them.

Most everything above channel 78 (550MHz) in most cable systems is digital. Channel 98 is actually between channel 6 and 7 (along with 95-99), it's actually in the FM radio band (and isn't used by some cable systems for that reason). 98-99 are in the aeronautical band and are also not used by some cable systems for that reason (due to concerns about leakage and violating FCC rules).


http://www.jneuhaus.com/fccindex/cablech.html