QAM Support in MCE 2005!!!

[Quasmo]

It comes in today. Hooray.

 

[arod]

i got mine up and running last night.... for some reason it didnt play nice with my media center at first and i needed to completly reinstall vista ultimate but once i did its up and running well. seems to work very well and really better than i expected. (sorry for taking so long to respond but i literally just got it running about 2 AM last night)

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: arod
i got mine up and running last night.... for some reason it didnt play nice with my media center at first and i needed to completly reinstall vista ultimate but once i did its up and running well. seems to work very well and really better than i expected. (sorry for taking so long to respond but i literally just got it running about 2 AM last night)

Music to my ears. I have class till 7:30 tonight, and I hope either me or my roommate is there to pick up the package. I've been looking forward to this for a while and now I can watch Lost tonight HD!!!!

 

[lightpants]

It says you can use any remote control with this. Is this just for changing channels or can you fully control MCE with this and a universal remote?

 

[Quasmo]

UPDATED!!!

Here are all the channels I get now:

INHD
INHD2
ESPN HD
ESPN HD2
ESPN News
*CSPAN 3
*Toon Disney
*Soapnet
Music HD
Fox HD
NBC HD
TNT HD
*CNN
*The Weather Channel
Discovery HD
ABC HD
*The Tube
*MyTV
CBS HD

Channels with stars are not HD.
1100% more HD!!!!! (I had only one before )

 

[Steve]

What kind of remote are you using?

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: sm8000
What kind of remote are you using?

I use a Harmony 880, but to control this tuner it is over the network, so it doesn't need one.

 

[markgm]

Hmm, I'm tempted, but I want to know how it plays with Cox first. My HDTV gets the local stations through cable.

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: markgm
Hmm, I'm tempted, but I want to know how it plays with Cox first. My HDTV gets the local stations through cable.

Your TV already supports QAM if you get HD through cable. This just allows you to record TV with Media Center Edition

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Do channels like HBOHD and Showtime HD work? (using time warner cable) (also assuming i subscribe to them)

 

[Darkstar757]

How can I check to see how many channels i get over qam? I have comcast.

Thanks

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: GrantMeThePower
Do channels like HBOHD and Showtime HD work? (using time warner cable) (also assuming i subscribe to them)

For subscription services you have to have a cable card.

Darkstar, I dont know where you can find a list, check out AVS forums. I'm so glad I got this tuner. I'm watching ping pong in HD, and Discovery HD is just incredible. I LOVE THIS!!!. I was thinking impulse buy when I got it. But I don't regret the purchase in the slightest bit now.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Does it have the ability to record regular analog as well?

 

[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?

 

[DukeN]

Will this work with just about any cable provider? Have Robbers..err Rogers cable up here in Canada. Just want the basic HD channels, as long as it works with them I'm happy.

 

[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?

Do you have 2 digital tuners. As I'm finding out now, I really can only use it as one digital tuner. It becomes a problem because I have my ATI tuner which doesn't recognize the QAM channels so it tries to record with the ATI and gets no signal, where if it used the Homerun it gets signal. I hope that makes sense.

To answer your question, this is basically just for HD content. Not for analogue. It lays down a driver layer and tells windows you have a ATSC tuner in your computer, and then routes the QAM signal to ATSC (the signal MCE understands). So if you only have 2 analogue tuners you should be fine, I have 4 + this tuner I just got. It says it has two tuners but you can only use 1 because of the beta driver, so eventually I assume you can use both.

 

[SmoochyTX]

Originally posted by: 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?

Do you have 2 digital tuners. As I'm finding out now, I really can only use it as one digital tuner. It becomes a problem because I have my ATI tuner which doesn't recognize the QAM channels so it tries to record with the ATI and gets no signal, where if it used the Homerun it gets signal. I hope that makes sense.

To answer your question, this is basically just for HD content. Not for analogue. It lays down a driver layer and tells windows you have a ATSC tuner in your computer, and then routes the QAM signal to ATSC (the signal MCE understands). So if you only have 2 analogue tuners you should be fine, I have 4 + this tuner I just got. It says it has two tuners but you can only use 1 because of the beta driver, so eventually I assume you can use both.

It's a dual analog tuner. This is the tuner that came in my Dell E510.

OK. I have Time Warner in Houston. I'd like to be able to watch HD content without buying an HD television. So if I add this onto my computer, I'd be able to watch and record OTA HD programming in addition to the regular programming on my analog dual tuner right?

 

[yllus]

You just got me newly interested in checking out how my Samsung SIR-T451 set-top box does at decoding QAM on my Rogers cable line.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: arod

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: Quasmo

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Wow, that's not a bad price at all for that. May have to look into it once I move to an area where HDTV reception is a realistic possibility

That's what great about it. It doesn't use Over the air signals. It uses the signals right from your cable. I can only recieve one channel in HiDef OTA, but with this, I'll get every one of my local stations, plus more (Discovery HD and so forth).

I'm aware of what QAM is; in fact I used to have a PCI HDTV tuner that supported QAM - my problem is that my cable service provider (if you can call it that) here on campus carries no HD channels at all.

thats what you get for living on campus (esp since they dropped suddenlink for that lame campus tv network)

We used to get Comcast living on campus. We used to get HD channels thru QAM. Too bad I didn't have my TV tuner card back then...

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: SmoochyTX

Originally posted by: 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?

Do you have 2 digital tuners. As I'm finding out now, I really can only use it as one digital tuner. It becomes a problem because I have my ATI tuner which doesn't recognize the QAM channels so it tries to record with the ATI and gets no signal, where if it used the Homerun it gets signal. I hope that makes sense.

To answer your question, this is basically just for HD content. Not for analogue. It lays down a driver layer and tells windows you have a ATSC tuner in your computer, and then routes the QAM signal to ATSC (the signal MCE understands). So if you only have 2 analogue tuners you should be fine, I have 4 + this tuner I just got. It says it has two tuners but you can only use 1 because of the beta driver, so eventually I assume you can use both.

It's a dual analog tuner. This is the tuner that came in my Dell E510.

OK. I have Time Warner in Houston. I'd like to be able to watch HD content without buying an HD television. So if I add this onto my computer, I'd be able to watch and record OTA HD programming in addition to the regular programming on my analog dual tuner right?

It will work along side your current tuners. The difference with this card is that it has 2 options, it does OTA, and QAM which is broadcast though your cable provider, so you get alot more HD channels. Also, this is connected to your box over your network, meaning more than one computer can use it at once, and you only need an ethernet cable to attach it to your computer.

 

[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.

 

[flashbacck]

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.

avsforum has a whole forum dedicated to HD reception that's divided into city/provider. I'd recommend everyone just search that forum rather than waste time w/ their cable CSRs.

 

[pennylane]

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?

 

[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.

 

[Crucial]

marked for later