Tuner Card w/Full Cable - How?

A

Adam

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
Messages
1,592
Okay so heres my thing. Im from Long Island and have Optimum for cable. Im paying $10/month for their DVR and it can record two things at once. Now its not bad but its slow. The menus are slow and the repeat recording sometimes fails. And.. max of 2 recordings at once (problem for me on Monday nights, lots of good stuff on).

Anyway, id like to get rid of their DVR box and do it through my HTPC. Its a monster HTPC so i can run anything.

Heres what i'd like to do..

1) Have at least 2 tuners (4 would be great)
2) Have all of my channels..

right now I have channels 702-798 in digital. Channels 800-8xxx are also digital but are the premium channels. We get HBO/Starz so thats like channels 800-820

Anyway, im more concerned with the normal HD channels, in fact, i don't even watch HBO/Starz.

Is there anything I can get to support at least 2 tuners and access all my nice digital channels? I have a HDTV in my bedroom without a cable box, but i can only get maybe 20 channels. My optimum box uses a cable card, so do i need a tuner with a cable card reader or something, to read my premium services??? (like science channel, etc...)

Let me know.
 
Got an exact model # so i can search through my distributors
 
Just called Cablevision (Optimum). They charge $34.95 for "professional installation" and then $2/month for the cable card. Bastards.
 
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Check out http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/ for a complete rundown about how digital cable card tuners work. I recall reading that there is some sort of compatibility problem with AT&T U-verse, but other than that I haven't seen any other complaints about cable cards not working with a specific provider. The FCC mandates that cable companies support cable cards, but some providers are notorious for dragging their feet to get customers with cable cards up and running. If you are the type that lives on the bleeding edge, their is a new tuner card that is coming out that many of the HTPC folks are anxiously anticipating. If you are willing to wait it out a few months, and have deep enough pockets (the price is still tba) check out http://www.cetoncorp.com/ProductsWMC.php. Good luck. I hope this info helps.
 
My pockets arnt that deep. Id rather spend money on other gear then a tv tuner card, lol. My HTPC cost me over $600 to build anyway last year.

For now i'll look at the ATI. I've been on the green button and called Optimum. $35 seems like a decent price to pay to get rid of their DVR box. Im paying $10/month extra for the DVR box, plus their $5 or so box fee. Thats $15/month which will add up quickly.

I've been on the greenbutton reading around. Seems MS has a new tool that updates the system automatically to work with tuner cards/cablecards
 
BTW i tried to order that site, the cannonpc site sucks and kinda screws up during ordering. Got any other vendors who selll it?
 
Thanks, turns out Dell sells it also, for $210... i emailed my dell rep seeing how much lower they can get it to me for :)
 
$188 and change, free shipping. Gotta love being a dell reseller
 
Adam - any chance you have a link or dell part # for the internal card?


Edit: n/m found it here
 
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