Watching Tv on my computer???

S

SAW

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 13, 2005
Messages
1,467
Howdy folks....

Ok, so, I will NEVER buy another RCA product. Within 1 year, Ive gone thru 2 of them. Now they are just large paper weights till I can get them to some repair shop.

Anyhoo..

My TV for my computer room just went out. I wont get into details, lets just say it doesnt work anymore and be done with that issue.

But, this is MY gaming room, my sanctuary away from the kids, wife, LIFE. Id like to be able to watch football and my science channel and history channel back here (since the wife isnt into those things) but now Im without a TV to watch those things.

I have a decent computer and was wondering what it would take to run my Dish Network into my computer and watch the same stuff I did on TV, but thru my computer instead.

I have an 8800gts eVGA video card, but not certain of its capabilities. It was an RMA from eVGA went my 7900gt went FUBAR.

What would I need to do to watch my TV/Dish Network thru my computer?

TIA for any suggestions.
 
You don't mention which OS you are using or whether you have a DISH receiver in this room.

If you have a DISH receiver or basic cable, and if you are using Vista Home Premium, Vista Ultimate or XP Media Center Edition, then you can buy any TV tuner that is compatible (USB, PCI or PCIe) and use Media Center as a tv viewing app. It works with remotes as well. You can either buy a separate remote or choose a TV tuner card with a remote. With a DISH receiver you will need a universal remote to change channels on the receiver or use the DISH remote for channel switching and the PC remote for everything else.

If you are not using an OS with Media Center, then you can use whatever crappy app the card comes with - it will do the basic job, or buy a 3rd party media center type app such as SnapStream.
 
hit up a dual tuner tv tuner that accepts analog and digital signals. from the directv stb connect the coax to the analog in on the tv tuner and buy a cheapo $5 antenna from the dollar store and connect that into your digital in. OTA HD for NFL games and the analog in for everything else.

thats what i do and its great. i uploaded an analog broadcast to youtube and check out the quality. pretty damn good. watch in high quality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4woMFz7g5hg
 
Im using XP Home Edition. Im not into the media stuff, so not sure if I have a Media Center at all. I built this computer specifically for gaming and nothing else....well, on occasion, I'll watch a movie on it, but I dont listen to music thru the computer.

I do have the reciever in this room and a slew of remotes. Where can I get a TV tuner card and how much is that?
 
haadij404 said:
hit up a dual tuner tv tuner that accepts analog and digital signals. from the directv stb connect the coax to the analog in on the tv tuner and buy a cheapo $5 antenna from the dollar store and connect that into your digital in. OTA HD for NFL games and the analog in for everything else.

thats what i do and its great. i uploaded an analog broadcast to youtube and check out the quality. pretty damn good. watch in high quality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4woMFz7g5hg
Click to expand...

Just watched your upload about the toilets...LOL...interesting. Thanks
 
SAW said:
Im using XP Home Edition. Im not into the media stuff, so not sure if I have a Media Center at all. I built this computer specifically for gaming and nothing else....well, on occasion, I'll watch a movie on it, but I dont listen to music thru the computer.

I do have the reciever in this room and a slew of remotes. Where can I get a TV tuner card and how much is that?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately XP Home doesn't include media center. I recommend upgrading. Vista Home Premium OEM is $99 or if you don't want to do that, buy SnapStream or if you don't mind tweaking things, MediaPortal is free.

You can buy any number of TV tuner cards online. See here: http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=47&name=TV-Tuners-Video-Devices
Starting at .. free after rebate to > $100, lots of choices.
 
Ahhh, how interesting.

Ive got one slot left for a card, my 8800gts takes up 2 card spaces, but I have one open under my sound card location.

I actually already have Vista Home....though I dont know if its Premium or not (we just moved and its packed away). I bought it about a year ago and never used it due to the problems people were having with it...as you can see in the bottom of my signature...I wasnt a fan of Vista.

I like that in that link you provided, I see there is an Asus made tuner card, though I wasnt wanting to spend alot, I KNOW for a fact that Asus makes good stuff and for $79 bucks, Im sure it would suit me just fine. Too bad my mortgage and electric payment are due, this will have to wait till next weeks check :(

Thanks for your time and replies sethk. If you dont mind, when I do get this thing, if I have questions about what to do, if I could PM ya, Id be much appreciated.

Thanks again.....
 
No problem. If you don't want to use your last slot, you could buy a USB2 tuner. The main difference being that the USB2 versions are limited to whatever codec they compress video to (most commonly MPEG2), whereas the add-in cards will allow you to use your CPU to record it in a different codec if you want (such as WMV, etc.) Make sure that whatever card you have has hardware compression (low CPU usage) and has good drivers (do a search on google before buying). Good luck.
 
Does your monitor have more than 1 connection on the back of it? if it does and it has both a VGA and DVI get a HDMI to DVI cable from Monoprice and connect it to your reciever if your reciever has HDMI and your computer to the VGA input and you are good to go. If you don't have a reciever that has an HDMI input then you would have to have a monitor that has an input that your reciever has an output for.
 
[21CW]killerofall;1033358585 said:
Does your monitor have more than 1 connection on the back of it? if it does and it has both a VGA and DVI get a HDMI to DVI cable from Monoprice and connect it to your reciever if your reciever has HDMI and your computer to the VGA input and you are good to go. If you don't have a reciever that has an HDMI input then you would have to have a monitor that has an input that your reciever has an output for.
Click to expand...

Nope, just one that goes to the computer. Its an Acer AL1914. Its a longgg story, but when I built this computer, it was on a very tight budget, so I got what I could that would do the job I needed.....at the time, it was a very decent monitor for the price.

MightyDiomed said:
Just use your Monitor as a TV and change the input when you wanna watch TV.
Click to expand...

How is that done?
 
SAW said:
Nope, just one that goes to the computer. Its an Acer AL1914. Its a longgg story, but when I built this computer, it was on a very tight budget, so I got what I could that would do the job I needed.....at the time, it was a very decent monitor for the price.



How is that done?
Click to expand...
You are going to need a monitor with more than one input unless you want to keep unplugging it to watch TV and vice versa.

I forget what kind of tuner my dad bought for his computer but it uses an antenna and apparently he can watch TV with it.. I'm sure it was cheap as he's frugal as all hell. If I find out how well it works or if it works at all, I'll let you know. But at the moment, that seems to be the best option for you.
 
You seem to be basically stuck with having to unplu one or the other to watch TV.
smiley2.gif
 
Interesting thread, i'm in the same predicament.

Can anyone recommend a specific tuner card (preferrably pci express, but not limited to) that they've had experience with?
 
this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116037

if you have a dvr you can switch it to dual mode and run the coax to your room from the back of your receiver. Use the UHF remote and make sure the tuner is set to the output channel designated by the dvr and Poof tv on your pc.

This is the exact setup i use, i know it works with the ViP 622 and 722 hd-dvr

Obviously you wont be able to get HD thru this method but you will still be able to access those hd channels
 
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