watch more then one TV channel at a time

[silverferro]

I have been using a cable TV service for some years now which comes with a small black box.The problem is I can only watch one channel at a time. I just bought a TV card for my comp and I can't get any channels on it with out the black box in my hall connected to the main TV. I contacted the cable company and they said i had to buy ANOTHER black box PLUS 2nd subscrition!!!!! inside the same house hold!!!! thats the biggest crap I have ever heard from a company to date. This means I have to get that many stupid black boxes and subscriptions as many TVs I own.The stupid ugly black box does the tunning and only allow one channel to be viewed this defets the purpose of TV's 99 or so channel tunners when I can only use one channel and can't use the picture in picture function since I can only watch one channel at a time. Does anyone know any way around this? I have already spent 100+ on the tv card and dont want to spend for the extra monthly subscription and another stupid ugly black box.Any help pls.. thanks in advance.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: silverferro
I have been using a cable TV service for some years now which comes with a small black box.The problem is I can only watch one channel at a time. I just bought a TV card for my comp and I can't get any channels on it with out the black box in my hall connected to the main TV. I contacted the cable company and they said i had to buy ANOTHER black box PLUS 2nd subscrition!!!!! inside the same house hold!!!! thats the biggest crap I have ever heard from a company to date. This means I have to get that many stupid black boxes and subscriptions as many TVs I own.The stupid ugly black box does the tunning and only allow one channel to be viewed this defets the purpose of TV's 99 or so channel tunners when I can only use one channel and can't use the picture in picture function since I can only watch one channel at a time. Does anyone know any way around this? I have already spent 100+ on the tv card and dont want to spend for the extra monthly subscription and another stupid ugly black box.Any help pls.. thanks in advance.

a) this is not really Highly Technical.

b) Your cable company evidently scrambles all their channels, not just the digital ones (channels 120+). Comcast (at least in the Northeast) is not like this; I can watch the analog channels on my cable service through my TV tuner card. If they scramble their channels, you would need to get another cable box from your service provider to watch them on any device. Don't like it? Not much choice, unfortunately. You could get satellite -- but I warn you, they also charge per receiver.

 

[SagaLore]

I didn't realize there were still cable companies that used descramblers. Unless, you're subscribed to digital channels. Then I would change back to the analog service, and you'll be able to share the channels throughout the house.

 

[AbsolutDealage]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I didn't realize there were still cable companies that used descramblers. Unless, you're subscribed to digital channels. Then I would change back to the analog service, and you'll be able to share the channels throughout the house.

Note that for every splitter you have on the analog coax, the resulting lines only end up with 1/4 of the signal strength of the original.

Ahhh, dorm room cable-jacking science at its best

 

[intogamer]

eh? Two of my friends can watch 2 channels at once. Its pretty awesome. One had a sony tv. Other I don't know. You can also play ps2 and watch tv :shocked: