2 tuner cards = 2 cable boxes?

[El Spic]

I am getting a dual tuner card. Will i need two cable boxes to have my htpc work as a DVR?
Cable guys are here as I type this...

 

[Trepidati0n]

Woah buddy...stop right there.

Are you talking about using two digital cable boxes and using IR blasters to control it or just talking about old fashioned analog cable? Big difference to the answer.

If you are talking about two digital boxes, then you will need a tuner card with two SEPERATE inputs. Most dual tuner cards have one signle RF input which would make this case not possible. If it is just the old fashioned cable from the wall, then you are fine.

 

[El Spic]

I have comcast digital cable and I am using this card
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...132&CatId=1427

I only have one box right now. Can I hook up the connection from the wall straight to the tuner card instead of using the cable box?

 

[Trepidati0n]

I have comcast digital cable and I am using this card
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...132&CatId=1427

I only have one box right now. Can I hook up the connection from the wall straight to the tuner card instead of using the cable box?

For the analog signal yes, the digital signal no.

 

[El Spic]

K thanks for your speedy responce

 

[huskerpat]

Digital channels yes if you output them to the computer analog with s-video cables, for example.

 

[El Spic]

Digital channels yes if you output them to the computer analog with s-video cables, for example.

I dont really understand that

SO since I have digital cable

I am going to have to get 2 cableboxs and attach each of them to my dual tuner card of my pc. Then i am going to have to get some sort of IR reflection thing so I can control the tuner boxes so I can change channels.

I am getting confused.....

 

[farscapesg1]

The tuner card will be able to tune any analog channels by itself. These are usually channels that are below channel 80 or so. Basically anything you can tune with a standard TV by just plugging in the coax cable from the wall outlet.

For the digital channels you will have to use the s-video out of the cable box into one of the inputs on the tuner card. These are usually the channels that are above 100. This requires either using an IR blaster, or depending on the TV application and the cable box you may be able to use a serial connection to change the channels.

For example, if I want to record anything from Noggin for my daughter (channel 342), I have to record it from the cable box via s-video. However, if I want to record anything on Sci-Fi (channel 60), it is an analog channel that I can record through my TV tuner cards.

 

[Gamerdad]

This might help you:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mce/expert/bowman_dualtuners.mspx

I went through the same issue that you're going through a few weeks back and I got most of my answers from here. I don't know if you are using windows MCE/vista though.

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

you will need only 1 cable box to run a pvr. but this means you will have to watch the channel you are recording - unless you have a splitter before your cable box and you are inputting the undecoded cable signal as well as the output from your cable box to your tuner card. you could also record 2 channels this way, but only 1 premium channel and 1 free cable channel. if you wanted to be able to record, say 1 hbo channel and a showtime channel simultaneously (or record hbo and watch showtime, etc, etc) you will need 2 cable boxes. if you go this way, request that your cable company give you separate drops (cables in from the street) for each box.