Hey, could someone lead me to some good beginner articles? I have never tried this. What i'm looking for, is some help on what to do / what to buy to setup some tv on my comp. Looking for just local satellite, all i need is a tv tuner card, software and an antenna? would anyone reccomend anything specific and/or again link me to some sites / articles. Thanks. Also, what is MythTV? is this one of the programs im looking for?
trying to get tv on my comp
- Thread starter MadOni0n
- Start date
I have a winfast PVR card, you could just set video/audio in and use the sat remote to control the channels and such. MythTV is more of a MCE2k5 server type setup, where you have one server that holds/records shows, and small set top type boxes that just play the file from the server, with no need to have the H/W on the machine. It is a linux based program, but it does have a windows front end (Drag is the MythTV guru, so it seems 
)
)i have never tried myth, but i would recommend beyond tv (www.snapstream.com).
basically, what you need is a TV tuner card, i would recommend a hauppauge pvr-150. they are good cards.
things get hairy when you have a satelite or digital cable box and you want to control them with a computer remote. there are workarounds though such as IR blasters. beyond tv has a one month free trial.
oh yeah, with the tv tuner card, there are two types, those that encode/capture via software and cpu power, and those that have their own hardware to do the work. i would recommend the latter as using your cpu for this really bogs the system down. the hauppague card i recommended is a hardware type.
basically, what you need is a TV tuner card, i would recommend a hauppauge pvr-150. they are good cards.
things get hairy when you have a satelite or digital cable box and you want to control them with a computer remote. there are workarounds though such as IR blasters. beyond tv has a one month free trial.
oh yeah, with the tv tuner card, there are two types, those that encode/capture via software and cpu power, and those that have their own hardware to do the work. i would recommend the latter as using your cpu for this really bogs the system down. the hauppague card i recommended is a hardware type.
software cards are OK, esp. with today's CPU power. How many people are watching TV and playing UT2k4 while running seti?
I can understand surf the web+watch, but not much more then that.
I can understand surf the web+watch, but not much more then that.
ok tv tuner card, and most include the software. Now, how do i get the stuff? Should i be looking for an antenna so i can receive local satellite or what?
I regularly capture a show, encode/burn a dvd of a show, and encode another show to wmv on my MCE2k5 system at once, couldn't do that well with a software card. Things get hairy if I try to stream something via Orb while that is going on though...I think I need more memory.
I'd stick with a hardware card, the cost savings aren't that great with a sw card. The PVR 150 is what I have and am very pleased with it. Although I'm considering getting a 500 soon to replace it.
you could get the 500 to add to it, that would be awsome, 3 tuners going at once... maybe a bit overkill.
no youdon't need an antenna. the tv tuner card (well at least my hardware card) has a coaxial in and an s-video in. The co-ax in captures audio and video, i'm not sure how the s-video captures sound as i havn't used it yet. i think you just run a audio patch cord from your source (satelite box) to the audio in of your soundcard, i could be wrong though. You can buy a tv tuner card, software and remote for your computer in one package at snapstream.com if that is your bag, that's whati did.
no youdon't need an antenna. the tv tuner card (well at least my hardware card) has a coaxial in and an s-video in. The co-ax in captures audio and video, i'm not sure how the s-video captures sound as i havn't used it yet. i think you just run a audio patch cord from your source (satelite box) to the audio in of your soundcard, i could be wrong though. You can buy a tv tuner card, software and remote for your computer in one package at snapstream.com if that is your bag, that's whati did.
SFF -- only one PCI slot.
Does MCE support 3 tuners anyways? I'd have to rent a 4th digital box from TWC that way, too. I hate giving them the money that I do now...:|I still have to figure out a way to get the panel with the second svideo/etc connectors accessible. I think I may just grab the USB2 PVR.
Ichinisan
Lifer
- Oct 9, 2002
- 28,298
- 1,235
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I'm using Windows XP Media Center Edition with an eVGA NVIDIA NVTV dual television tuner (single card).
Sweet
Yes, it does allow you to control two external boxes if you buy the Microsoft IR Remote/Receiver kit
It includes infrared tethers to attach so that you can control your boxes.
The NVTV card has dual SVIDEO inputs, which are great for non-HD boxes.
Sweet
Yes, it does allow you to control two external boxes if you buy the Microsoft IR Remote/Receiver kit
It includes infrared tethers to attach so that you can control your boxes.
The NVTV card has dual SVIDEO inputs, which are great for non-HD boxes.
I am not sure, but I think MCE is limited to 2.
Mythtv you can have as many as your computer can handle, but you have to use Linux to use it. At least for the backend. For the frontend they have a .NET program that works on Windows, but I've never tried it.
Plexor makes a USB2 device that will work. They released GPL'd drivers for it and support for it is in Mythtv in CVS (meaning that it's in advanced beta form.. usually usable).
I am pretty sure that MCE can use it too. It's can use hardware to encode in a veriaty of formats. Mpeg2 (what dvds and digital TV uses) and mpeg4 (divx-like) among others. A bit expensive though.
Mythtv and MCE are like Tivos were they can do time shifting. MCE requires hardware-encoder cards, were Mythtv can use either capture cards that encode in hardware or not. It supports software encoding, but you need to have a fast CPU for that. But you can't use ATI AIW cards in Linux. (for video they work fine, but no support for the tv capture card).
If you don't want/need time shifting then there are a bunch of programs that work just fine.
Mythtv you can have as many as your computer can handle, but you have to use Linux to use it. At least for the backend. For the frontend they have a .NET program that works on Windows, but I've never tried it.
Plexor makes a USB2 device that will work. They released GPL'd drivers for it and support for it is in Mythtv in CVS (meaning that it's in advanced beta form.. usually usable).
I am pretty sure that MCE can use it too. It's can use hardware to encode in a veriaty of formats. Mpeg2 (what dvds and digital TV uses) and mpeg4 (divx-like) among others. A bit expensive though.
Mythtv and MCE are like Tivos were they can do time shifting. MCE requires hardware-encoder cards, were Mythtv can use either capture cards that encode in hardware or not. It supports software encoding, but you need to have a fast CPU for that. But you can't use ATI AIW cards in Linux. (for video they work fine, but no support for the tv capture card).
If you don't want/need time shifting then there are a bunch of programs that work just fine.
Just for clarification, do you already recieve satellite tv on like a tv or something? The way your posts are worded it appears that you would like to just plug in a card and pick up satellite signals. Without an active satellite subscription and receiver, you're not going to get it. Unless you're referring to FTA satellite and they do make specific cards to pick that up but that's another discussion entirely.
Speed
well i do have satellite tv at home in another room,but as far as i know, i cant split the connection and hook it up to a comp for example, like you can with cable without paying for a separate connection / box. So was thinking about FTA satellite then. Inform me about that?
The only way to get something worthwhile for satellite would be something that can unecrypt the signal so you could record a seperate channel than the one you are watching. At least for a PVR type solution. If you are only interested in watching TV, practically any tuner card should be sufficient as long as your satellite box is doing all the decryption work, and handing your tuner card the unencrypted signal. Single channel recording can also be done in that fashion.
I would highly recommend a hardware based card like a hauppague. I've run ATIs AIW cards, which use software for capture and the effects are really horrible, unless you plan to do nothing but capture a show. It's nice to be able to pipe a show to the TV, record it, and be able to use your computer. Trust me the software cards should only be used if you don't mind getting off your computer and watching the show.
There are few issues with availability of WDM drivers for your TV Card. WDM Video Drivers are responsible to bridge Microsoft and your Card. Until and unless you are happy with softwares that come with the card, there is no problem. If you are looking to caputre and record video stream directly to Windows Media Encoder, you may face real annoyances. I have read in forums that even top of the line Pinnacle TV cards do not work well with Windows Media Encoders. Thankfully, my PixelView TV Card happen to work and this is how I am able to livecast TV programs over Internet mixing services provided by Windows Media Services, IIS and Windows Media Encoder.
Hey, yea when i made the thread i had FTA Satelllite in mind. Now i know what i wanted, and what it's called heh. So, how much does the average fta satellite cost? looking for something smaller. I googled and they all costed $150-250 each.
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