Noob questions and a little confirmation plz

[musicman_ace]

I've got the specs in mind for this project, but some things are unanswered, and 1 question sort of got answered in my last search.

1. Which tv service does it work with? (Non-digital cable, digital cable, satellite tv)?
-- I assume non-digital since the tuner cards generally say 125 channel tuner, but digital/satellite would need to be connected to the their receivers wouldn't it

2. If I setup a recording time, it seems that I must remember to leave the receiver on the specified channel for the htpc to record from? I found a thread that said the PC will control the receiver using Firewire, USB-uirt, etc. So I need to find out which port will come with my service before I get into purchasing stuff I think. No I don't have TV service as I've just moved.

3. If I want to watch a tv show (no using the htpc) and record a show on a separate station, wouldn't I need a second receiver?

These are probably really noobie questions, but storing video on a hard drive is much more preferable than a mound of VCR tapes.

Thanks for all the answers..
Adam

 

[k1114]

If you are using a digital cable or sattelite, you would need to have something that controls the box to change the channels for you. All of your control would be done via the HTPC, and the HTPC would control the cable/sattelite box completely. The best method for this is to own a box that supports a com port or other hard line connection, but a USB-UIRT will get the job done as well. If you just have analog cable you run the line right to the tuner (this is what I do).

You can only watch or record one thing at a time with a tv tuner card, regardless of what type of signal there is. The workaround is to install multiple tuner cards (most people use 2, some go with 3). The major advantage of analog cable here is that you don't need seperate boxes for recording or watching multiple stations at once, since you can just split the cable line to each them. With digital you would need one cable/sattelite box for each tuner card since a tuner box can only output one singal at a time. This isn't a major setback if you get the right tuners, and the cable company (although likely untrusting of the whole HTPC concept) shouldn't have a problem letting you buy/rent (I suggest you get your own boxes if possible so you can get ones with a hard line connection) multiple boxes and setting it up as a two room service. I'm not really an expert on digital setups, you might wait for others to chime in and hear their advice.

 

[IDversusEGO]

that sums it up pretty well. You are in a good spot since you don't have tv services yet. I recommend you get digital cable, and not a dish company. quality is comparable (they both stink) and cable is easier to work with on the htpc side. you need a tuner card for each viewing/recording channel. with basic cable you cang et the basic signals to as many tv/pc's as you want without a box. you won't have your expanded channels though. so here is how I am doing it.

tuner card 1 gets a basic cable signal
tuner card 2 stays on channel 3 and receives a signal from the digital box
htpc uses usb-uirt (product link) to change the channels on the cable box at recording time.

honestly, I rarely have the problem of scheduling conflicts because I don not do much tv watching on this pc, but I want to play with dual tuners. I have another pvr upstairs that does my random recordings, and the HTPC does the stuff I want to burn to disc.

 

[musicman_ace]

tuner card 1 gets a basic cable signal
tuner card 2 stays on channel 3 and receives a signal from the digital box

That makes me ask another question. If you have digital cable and you bypass the receiver and plug directly in the the TV/HTPC you still get the basic channels?
Is that how I'm reading that

 

[Impulse]

That makes me ask another question. If you have digital cable and you bypass the receiver and plug directly in the the TV/HTPC you still get the basic channels?
Is that how I'm reading that

Yes, you'll lose premium ones (ie HBO, Showtime, etc., and music channels which are often part of the basic cable service unlike the previous mentioned).

 

[re1ex]

i live in nyc and if i just plug directly to the cable my channles are not correct

5 would be changed to 15
7 to 17
11 to 21 and so on

and its only the standard channles 2-13 and a few basic cable channles get through

theres no way to do it without getting an additional digital cable box, is there?

 

[k1114]

i live in nyc and if i just plug directly to the cable my channles are not correct

5 would be changed to 15
7 to 17
11 to 21 and so on

and its only the standard channles 2-13 and a few basic cable channles get through

theres no way to do it without getting an additional digital cable box, is there?

The channels for digital and analog cable are totally different for almost all providers. You would setup two "sources" in the software and have seperate listings for each.