Need to turn my desktop pc into TV

[bupkus]

I was watching PBS yesterday about the Freedom Riders but my gf wanted to watch something else. I need to view cable (Comcast) programming with my desktop PC.
What do I need to do?

BTW, I only have some local programming thru comcast. We don't really get cable, just broadband, but for some reason we get some channels anyway. I think someone said Comcast is supposed to provide local stations.

 

[Griffinhart]

It all depends on your cable provider. You can try using an Analog TV tuner (PCI or USB) on your PC, but comcast has been droppng analog signals and going all digital, so it may not work. An easy test to see if it would work is, Plug the COAX cable directly to your TV without any Cable box in the mix at all. If you get a picture, you should be able to at least get the basic local channels. In my area (North of Boston) you can't do this any more.

IF it works, you can get away with an analog tuner. If it doesn't you have to use either an "Over the Air" digital tuner, or Cable Card installation.

OTA digital tuners are pretty cheap. You can fund a USB one from places like New Egg for $20-$50 pretty easily. plug it in to your PC, install any included software, attach a Digital TV antenna (not the comcast cable) and you're pretty much good to go. If you have decent TV signal with it, you can get some fantastic quality HD this way.

If the first option worked, you can do both of these things too. There are Hybrid tuners like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116034 that will allow both OTA digital and analog signals.

If analog isn't an option, and your Digital TV signal is too weak, and you can't get good reception, then you really only have one choice. A Tuner with a CABLECARD slot and a paid for TV service.

I use this last option. I have a Ceton TV tuner with a CABLECARD from Comcast. It's not a cheap option though. The tuners run near $300 and there can be a rental charge ( a few bucks a month ) from comcast for the CABLECARD itself. But, it's the full service minus On Demand stuff.

It sounds like you just want quick and easy local TV though, so the Hybrid option is probably your best bet if you are still getting an analog signal from comcast.


Another option is an OTA TV Digital TV tuner

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Just curious, but does the cablecard go into your pc or does it need to go into the Comcast cable box somehow? I've been looking for a way to ditch my cable bill and I'm currently working on an htpc and haven't gotten that far into dvr and cable stuff yet. Just working on the server side wand watching movies on my tv so far.

 

[Griffinhart]

The CABLECARD itself has to be provided from your provider. Comcast then provisions the card and your PC as a paired device and enables access to your services. So, If you are workign to ditch Comcast, CABLECARD is not the way to go. You would need to use an Over The Air tuner. Unfortunately for me, OTA receptions is pretty spotty. I live just below the crest of a hill, so I would have needed to install a fairly large antenna on the house for it to be useful.

IF you can get a decent signal, you should be able to get all the local stations. OTA HD tends to be higher quality than Cable TV as well.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

The CABLECARD itself has to be provided from your provider. Comcast then provisions the card and your PC as a paired device and enables access to your services. So, If you are workign to ditch Comcast, CABLECARD is not the way to go. You would need to use an Over The Air tuner. Unfortunately for me, OTA receptions is pretty spotty. I live just below the crest of a hill, so I would have needed to install a fairly large antenna on the house for it to be useful.

IF you can get a decent signal, you should be able to get all the local stations. OTA HD tends to be higher quality than Cable TV as well.

Wow good info. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Ken g6]

If analog isn't an option, and your Digital TV signal is too weak, and you can't get good reception, then you really only have one choice. A Tuner with a CABLECARD slot and a paid for TV service.

There might be one more option. Many cable systems send local channels digital channels in "clear QAM". This is the cable equivalent of OTA DTV ("ATSC"). I think it may be required for local channels; but I'm not really sure. If your channels are sent in clear QAM, you can get a tuner that supports it and watch DTV over cable on your computer for free.

I'm partial to Hauppauge, but it's kind of expensive compared to some of the other options. The others are probably good too. Maybe AVS forums have reviews; I haven't looked.

 

[Slugbait]

I think someone said Comcast is supposed to provide local stations.

More precisely, the Communications Act of 1934 requires that all cable service providers include stations/programming that you could otherwise receive with an antenna.

AFAIK, not one single local television station in the US broadcasts OTA with an analog signal anymore...as a result, Comcast must provide digital delivery for those local stations. In other words: plug your bare cable into any ATSC tuner, and you will receive HD programming for local stations that broadcast in HD (example: KOMO/ABC 4.1). You will also receive local digital stations that broadcast in SD (example: KOMO/ThisTV 4.2).

All cable service providers also broadcast local stations in analog. This is so the cable provider can still rake in the dough for the millions of analog televisions still in use that subscribe to the Basic package. How many analog channels you receive depends on your location and service provider, but I believe that at a bare minimum, channels 2 thru 13 are broadcasted in analog via cable.

This means you can use an analog TV tuner in your computer, regardless of which cable provider you have. This doesn't mean that you should use an analog card, just that you can...this is primarily because PCI's days are numbered, and that the analog picture quality really sorta sucks. And the quality sucks a lot worse on an HDTV than on a computer monitor.

Now, here's the deal with you being able to receive TV with cable: even though you only subscribe to broadband, everything still comes thru a single cable. The cable company is required by law NOT to scramble the lowest-tier package they provide (usually known as "Basic"), whereas they would otherwise force their customers to pay additional fees for a descrambler. As a result, they can't block Basic channels. It makes sense...if you bundle broadband and basic TV for a "price break", you'll find there is only a $5 difference per month over broadband-only. They know they can't stop the TV signal, they just hope you don't find out about it and pay the extra few bucks for it. They also hope you don't find out that getting Basic channels in HD does not require their box, which they would use to "upsell" you to much more expensive packages. And if you get the box, you can't record on your computer...that's how they "upsell" you even further to rent their own (crappy) DVR box.

Two of my HTPCs have the Hauppauge 1250 tuner. It will do either OTA or cable. It's PCI-E, so it won't become obsolete in the near future. It delivers a fantastic HD picture on MCE. And it's relatively cheap.

OTA HD tends to be higher quality than Cable TV as well.

This part is essentially true. OTA for most markets today broadcast at about 12Mbps (720P) or 16Mbps (1080i), and I believe it's CBR. On the other hand, cable bitrate is usually much lower, and usually depends on the programming: some programs or channels get more compression than others. I tried this one night with the David Letterman Show: antenna jacked into my HTPC, and cable jacked directly to my P54G25, and then jogged between inputs a few times...the quality difference was more than noticeable, it was striking.

 

[Binky]

I've used Hdhomerun, Hauppage, Avermedia, and even Vbox tuners, in PCI, PCI-E, networked, and USB forms with no problems. My favorite is the HDhomerun for about $100. The HDhomerun is attached to your home network, and any computer on the network can use the tuners.

If you run Win7, you don't need any additional software to view and record shows from your cable (analog or clearQAM) or off-air (ATSC HD).

You might need a remote, or at least a remote receiver. Check newegg, Amazon, or Ebay. There are lots of them for $20 or less. Focus on the USB receiver if you have a programmable remote, since you'll rarely use the remote. If you want Win7 to control the cable box, you will need a remote receiver with an IR output that will be attached to the front of the cable/sat box.

Check the for sale forums too. TV Tuners have been extremely reliable for me with zero failures out of about 6 tuners over the years. The technology also moves very very slowly. I have at least 3 used tuners that might be for sale if you're interested.

 

[mfenn]

AFAIK, not one single local television station in the US broadcasts OTA with an analog signal anymore...as a result, Comcast must provide digital delivery for those local stations. In other words: plug your bare cable into any ATSC tuner, and you will receive HD programming for local stations that broadcast in HD (example: KOMO/ABC 4.1). You will also receive local digital stations that broadcast in SD (example: KOMO/ThisTV 4.2).

That is correct, it would be illegal for them to broadcast on the old analog frequencies. The FCC reclaimed those so that they would reallocate (read sell) those frequencies for IP networks.

Now, here's the deal with you being able to receive TV with cable: even though you only subscribe to broadband, everything still comes thru a single cable. The cable company is required by law NOT to scramble the lowest-tier package they provide (usually known as "Basic"), whereas they would otherwise force their customers to pay additional fees for a descrambler. As a result, they can't block Basic channels.

Not quite true, it is actually very easy to block analog CATV channels without resorting to scrambling. Yes, everything comes over the same cable, but analog CATV uses a different frequency (lower frequencies I believe) than DOCSIS and digital cable TV. To block analog CATV to non-subscribers, all they need to do is install a high-pass filter at the demarcation point (i.e. your outside cable box). This is pretty labor intensive, so they usually don't bother, but it is definitely possible.

 

[mfenn]

I was watching PBS yesterday about the Freedom Riders but my gf wanted to watch something else. I need to view cable (Comcast) programming with my desktop PC.
What do I need to do?

BTW, I only have some local programming thru comcast. We don't really get cable, just broadband, but for some reason we get some channels anyway. I think someone said Comcast is supposed to provide local stations.

If you don't pay for cable, I'm assuming that you don't have a cable box. If so, you don't need to worry about CableCard; just get a tuner capable of ClearQAM and analog CATV and you'll be able to get the same channels as you do on your TV.