Do TV capture cards work with digital cable?

[Afro000Dude]

I have digital cable and was wondering if something like the MSI TV@nywhere card would work with it. The problem seems to be that there are two coaxial cables coming from the wall, but only one coaxial input on the card. Both cables are required for normal TV viewing, so I would assume that both would be required for using the capture card. Anyone have a similar setup who knows what to do?

 

[Megatomic]

We have digital cable but only one cable goes to the cable box here. I have digital cable going to my Leadtek TV2000XP Deluxe and it works just fine. I can only tune channels 2-116 though.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: Afro000Dude
I have digital cable and was wondering if something like the MSI TV@nywhere card would work with it. The problem seems to be that there are two coaxial cables coming from the wall, but only one coaxial input on the card. Both cables are required for normal TV viewing, so I would assume that both would be required for using the capture card. Anyone have a similar setup who knows what to do?

You sure you don't have cable and a regular antena for local channels?

 

[SUOrangeman]

The analog cable signal is usually still available even with digital cable service. So, it is a chance that any TV capture card will still work, but what you'll see is the 'old' analog signal and not the digital.

When I moved15+ months ago, Cox somehow FUBAR'd my cable order and conveniently signed me up for digital cable. At the end of the free month I cancelled the service. All I had to do was return the digital cable box. The analog signal had been there the entire time.

-SUO

 

[Afro000Dude]

It seems that one was for local stations and the other for the digital cable. Would that mean I woud have to switch out the cables if I wanted to record a local channel then a digital channel? Is there any descrambling needed, or can the digital go straight into the capture card?

 

[mosco]

i am pretty sure a tv tuner card wont work for digital cable without a cable box. Of corse you will get the analog channels, but none of the digital ones.

 

[StraightPipe]

this is easy, just take the line that actually plugs into your TV,

plug it into your capture card.

(if it works on the TV, then you can record it on the PC)

you can buy a splitter at radio shack if you want to be able to use TV and PC

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Afro000Dude
It seems that one was for local stations and the other for the digital cable. Would that mean I woud have to switch out the cables if I wanted to record a local channel then a digital channel? Is there any descrambling needed, or can the digital go straight into the capture card?

This sounds more like satellite TV than digital cable service. I've had cable service for the past 12 years (and in locations across the USA) and I've never had to have a separate line for local channels. My dad has satellite TV and for a while he DID have to have one though.

 

[Duvie]

Satellite TV at least the 2 majors have had local channel service for an added fee for awhile now. No extra cable or extra hook-up needed...I have my Dish satellite and I have one cable...

I run that to my PVR box and then out of the pvr box I run an svideo cable to my ATI AIW card through the svideo input with a digital audio cable...Sweet setup trust me...

Local digital cable providers around my parts suck in my opinion. The quality is about 80% that of satellite.

 

[Megatomic]

Yeah, my dad hasn't needed the extra antenna in for local stations for a few years now I guess. But here, our digital cable is great, I have no complaints whatsoever.

 

[Afro000Dude]

Originally posted by: StraightPipe
this is easy, just take the line that actually plugs into your TV,

plug it into your capture card.

(if it works on the TV, then you can record it on the PC)

you can buy a splitter at radio shack if you want to be able to use TV and PC

So it wouldn't be losing quality by going from digital to analog and back to digital again?

 

[SUOrangeman]

Quality loss? Yes. But, since you're not going to get the digital stream anyway (unless we're talking HDTV), your PC will only be getting analog input anyway.

-SUO

 

[SpeedFreak03]

How about just run a composite (RCA) or S-Video cable from your digital cable box right into your TV tuner? You should be able to record from rca or s-video inputs. And if you take the line coming out of the wall right into your tv-tuner, it will be regular analog cable. In delaware, we have comcast, and I had digital cable for a month, and I hated it! The quality was no were near as good as it looked in the store were I bought my TV, but for HDTV stations (only like 3 though) it was amazing. But since there was only three HDTV stations, I got rid of it, and got DirecTV. And let me tell you, I have it on my 48'' Mitsubishi HDTV (through S-Video), my 19'' 10 year old RCA TV (through regular coax cable), and my Pinnacle PCTV PCI card (S-Video) is shared with my 13'' Sharp TV (through composite RCA). They all look amazing!

-Josh

 

[matrixwalker]

Digital Cable is so full of crap that i don't know why you'd even want to bother receiving those stations. I have digital cable, and i can honestly tell you, i never watch those channels, the only ones i do are the HDTV channels, since several of my favorite shows are on HDTV. The only reason i kept the digital service was that it comes free with HDTV service, and i might as well have it since its free. if u don't care for HDTV, by all means, ditch digital cable, it's just full of trash.

 

[Afro000Dude]

Well, all the premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) cost more on regular cable than on digital, so digital is cheaper for me. Are there RCA cables that would go across the room from the cable box to the computer (~15 feet)?

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Afro000Dude
Well, all the premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) cost more on regular cable than on digital, so digital is cheaper for me. Are there RCA cables that would go across the room from the cable box to the computer (~15 feet)?

Yep...

I bought an Svideo cable of 25feet and and rca cable bundle of left and right audio and yellow composite (video) at 25 feet...I ofcourse didn't use the composite one since Svideo is a better connection. The Cables were purchased at Radio Shack....