Help me record my college football on HTPC

[loganex]

Hi champs. I've been using Windows 7 Media Center as my DVR for some time now, just feeding off the free channels that come in on the cable wire. Wouldn't you know Comcast just shut down their clear QAM feeds, and the only things that come through anymore are the networks and a few crummy free channels (including a few in spanish, which doesn't help me).

So every year I usually order cable for 4 months in the fall so I can watch my games. This year I wanna be able to record them for later watching. Let me see if I've got this straight.

Cable requires set top box, STB requires IR blaster for my HTPC to talk to it and a connection to my tuner card for video capture. I have two Hauppauge tuner cards, one dual one hybrid. Now to the questions.

- Has anyone had to use a setup like this before? How does it work?
- Would I still be able to schedule recordings in W7MC as usual?
- Will my tuner card do video capture over the coax, or do I need to use s-video and RCA?

Thanks.

 

[poofyhairguy]

You need to use S-Video for best results (unless you wanna buy a HD PVR or a cablecard tuner).

For local HD stuff just get an antenna.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i'm using a cable box > hauppage 2250. the picture quality is pretty terrible, regardless of composite or s-video. picture quality with ota hd is very good.

if an ir blaster was included with your hauppage cards, throw it away because it will never work.
http://forums.techarena.in/mediacenter/735954.htm#post2811607

 

[loganex]

oh, how dreadful. Yeah, the local HD stuff comes in great, it's the ESPNs of the world that I want to record.

I've had my eye on those new Ceton InfiniTV tuners for a while, because they would do everything I want, but they're prohibitively expensive right now. Also, who knows if I could get one shipped before September.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Another vote for a HD-PVR... I am sorry to hear about clear QAM going away for you, but the writing has been on the wall ever since QAM debuted that it would get encrypted. Centon or HD-PVR is really the only choice at the moment. At some point, I have to believe that someone will produce a recorder that will take a HDMI input, but until then, these are it. And also unfortuntely, even the HD-PVR might be on the endangered list... Eventually the studio's will say I don't want you to output 720p or 1080i over component...

 

[poofyhairguy]

Eventually the studio's will say I don't want you to output 720p or 1080i over component...

To many old component HDTVs for that to happen for a long time. I think a HD PVR is a safe bet.

 

[Fallen Kell]

To many old component HDTVs for that to happen for a long time. I think a HD PVR is a safe bet.

I only mentioned it because it is something they forced into the standards for the boxes, so it is technically a possibility. I agree that it would be foolish for them to do it, but then again, we are talking about the same people who placed rootkits on computers for simply wanting to play an audio CD, and the same people who mandated encryption and device ID's for everything to be connected digitally... If they believe even for a moment that they would lose control of their content, they will have no quams shutting it off, and tell the consumers who bought those TV's, "Too bad.".

 

[The Boston Dangler]

in a complete reversal from my first post, i have my hauppage blaster working with wmc and the drivers on wintv v7 cd 2.1a. just for kicks, i plugged the blaster cable in and wmc immediately recognized it. i picked "motorola" and the first remote code listed, and it works effortlessly.

go for it!

edit:
after working perfectly yesterday, it doesn't seem to work at all now. i dunno