QAM Support in MCE 2005!!!

[SmoochyTX]

Originally posted by: flashbacck

Originally posted by: fanerman91
I have some NOOB questions on how this device works because I have literally no idea. What I'm confused about is where the QAM Tuner gets the TV channels.

1) Does "over the air" mean by antenna (literally "over the air")? Or does the QAM signal go through coax cable? If QAM is over the air, does that mean I'd have to deal with antennae?

2) Do I need any kind of TV provider at all? Right now I have Dish for TV along with a local provider for internet (Charter--they also provide HDTV/TV, but we don't get TV from them). Would I be able to just to use the HDHomeRun thing to get HDTV?

3) How's the video quality? Is it the same as standard HDTV through a cable box?

1) over the air is w/ an antenna, also called ATSC. QAM is over cable. "QAM" and "ATSC" just refer to the modulation used. They are not interchangable. So a tuner that only does ATSC wouldn't pick up anything hooked up to a cable line.

2) for QAM, your cable does need to be hooked up, but you shouldn't have to subscribe to any premium services. Local channels should be unencrypted. There are some people that get a ton of premium channels, but I suspect that's only because the cable company hasn't gotten around to encrypting the signals.

3) Should be the same. HD signals are already encoded in MPEG2.

Thank you! That answered some of my questions as well.

 

[Jawo]

Awesome....will this work with XP SP2? I have Beyond TV I got with an KWorld HDTV OTA card, but having problems pulling in the signal as I back up to tall trees. This would be sweet if it does!

 

[Horus]

Wow, that's really cool actually. QAM (Quadature Amplitude Modulation) is a digital signal sent by cable companies, which usually requires a box to decode.

This would mean that you could plug in your cable to your computer, without using the box, and record HDTV onto your HD! That's freaking AWESOME.

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: Jawo
Awesome....will this work with XP SP2? I have Beyond TV I got with an KWorld HDTV OTA card, but having problems pulling in the signal as I back up to tall trees. This would be sweet if it does!

Certainly, I have it installed on Windows XP Media Center Edition, which is simply SP2 with media center, installed on top of it.

 

[Quasmo]

I have so many desktop backgrounds to choose from now. HD is just an endless supply of screen capped beautiful images.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
I'm on hold with comcast, I'm trying to figure out if ABC is broadcast in HD in my area. (I knew this would happen) The woman had never heard of "a QAM". I had to convince her that Comcast is broadcasting a signal over cable that allows for HD content, and you dont have to have a cable box. She was irritated with me . I'm on hold to get in touch with someone from my local area.

EDIT: Guy she transfered me to had no idea what it was either, but was less arrogant about it. Told me that they dont offer ABC in HD in my area. Nice guy.

How close are you to Tallahassee? We don't have ABC in HD here either. However I am able to get it OTA. I think the tower is located in Dothan, AL but that might be Fox.

edit: nevermind, I looked it up and you are near Atlanta.

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: Shawn
That doesn't really help me any. I already have the Avermedia a180 which supports QAM, but media center doesn't.

Really? I have been meaning to try. I pick a few QAM channels with one of my TVs. I have an A180 and I have an antenna attached to it. I get all the OTA channels but I get dropouts so I just figured that I would sacrifice a few channels for the TWC feed.

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: SmoochyTX
Forgive me for being clueless about this but I am....LOL

If I already have a dual tuner in my MCE computer, can I add this to to make four tuners?

ETA - I have Time Warner in Houston. I'd like to be able to watch HD content without buying an HD television. So if I could add this onto my computer, I'd be able to watch and record OTA HD programming on my computer right?

Yes, you'll have 4 tuners total. If you use the beta drivers and get QAM, you'll have only 3 tuners.