isekii's Question of the day

[isekii]

Alright, for your PC guru's

I have Dish Network now. I am considering purchasing a ATI Radeon 8500DV. All of you know that this card has the CATV input.

now If I want to view and record shows on my PC, Would it be possible for me to just get a splitter and have one coax cable coming in ? or would I need another receiver ?

TIA

 

[T3C]

As far as i know you would need a second reciever for the direct TV...

 

[conjur]

If you run coax out of the DISH receiver to the TV, you could split that (I'd use some short runs and a low-loss splitter). One to the TV and one to the 8500DV input.

Now, you'd only be able to record whatever channel the DISH receiver was set to but you could use a timer on the 8500DV software to record that stream...just be sure to set the DISH receiver on the proper channel when you're out....if that's your intention.

 

[isekii]

Originally posted by: conjur
If you run coax out of the DISH receiver to the TV, you could split that (I'd use some short runs and a low-loss splitter). One to the TV and one to the 8500DV input.

Now, you'd only be able to record whatever channel the DISH receiver was set to but you could use a timer on the 8500DV software to record that stream...just be sure to set the DISH receiver on the proper channel when you're out....if that's your intention.

so If I wanted to change channels on the PC then i'd need a seperate receiver.
Hehe I already have the PVR feature on one of my receivers , but I have about 45 hours filled up.

 

[conjur]

I don't believe you'd ever be able to use a PC as a satellite receiver. Cable is different, but the satellite providers use an encrypted format and I don't see DISH nor DirecTV licensing that to PC software/hardware.

 

[isekii]

Originally posted by: conjur
I don't believe you'd ever be able to use a PC as a satellite receiver. Cable is different, but the satellite providers use an encrypted format and I don't see DISH nor DirecTV licensing that to PC software/hardware.

i'm talking about a Dish REceiver connected to my PC and change channels that way.

 

[conjur]

I may be wrong here but I just don't believe you can use the PC to be a tuner. That's what you need....to be able to tune the channels (2-9999...or whatever the channel range is on DISH). The 8500DV has a built-in NTSC tuner so it can tune OTA and/or Cable TV. I just don't think it can 'tune' a satellite receiver's channels.

 

[huey1124]

why split the coax and risk degrading the signal?

i'm doing basically same thing you're doing, except that mine is DirecTV. my DirecTV receiver has a coax output, which goes to the TV. same receiver also has S-Video out, which feeds directly into my PC, for PVR function. the same receiver also has RCA output, which feeds the thing i bought from RadioShack (okay, i don't know what the thing is called), which enables me to watch DirecTV from any other TV in the house. it's really cool, since i can also change the channels on my DirecTV receiver without having to be in the same room.

so.... i have my DirecTV feeding video to 3 separate units (and also separate audio feeding my stereo system) without having ANY degradation in quality. at least on my DirecTV receiver, you can pre-select a show ahead of time, so it will change the channel and have the PC record it at same time. check your Dish receiver's manual, or at least look at the back of it for other video outputs.