TV connection to PC

[Guest]

Hi, I was thinking about hooking up a cable box to my PC so I can watch TV on my PC just for the lulz to see if I can get it working. I have two main questions, for a paid monthly connection and for free local connection. so obviously for a monthly paid connection - cable - I was told about hooking up a TV tuner of some sort either a PCI card or an external tuner like a USB to coaxial. Would that type of connection work for the monthly paid connection or would I need something else as well? Lastly, for a free local connection without paying monthly, what would I need to do? 

[JustTooDank]

Well most modern cable boxes output in HDMI, so I'd imagine all you need is a capture card.

[Guest]

Well most modern cable boxes output in HDMI, so I'd imagine all you need is a capture card.

Had a look, the box did have an HDMI spot for it so it should hook up. Why would I need a capture card though? What are they and what do they do? 

 

Wait wait wait... Just looked a few up and they have HDMI as well, shouldn't HDMI just work fine? 

[johnny5c]

I'm using both a cable card tuner and a OTA digital tuner in my HTPC.  The cable card tuner uses a M-Card from your cable company and mine is provided for free with my TV package, actually saving about $50 a month in DVR and cable box lease fees by using my HTPC and five Media Center extenders.  With the two tuners I'm using I can watch a different program on all six TV's plus record two more.

 

Cable card tuner,

http://cetoncorp.com/products/infinitv-6-pcie/

 

OTA tuner,

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr2255.html

 

 

A capture card with a cable box might work but you'd loose DVR functionality and not sure if HDCP would cause problems.

[JustTooDank]

Had a look, the box did have an HDMI spot for it so it should hook up. Why would I need a capture card though? What are they and what do they do? 

 

Wait wait wait... Just looked a few up and they have HDMI as well, shouldn't HDMI just work fine? 

 

Had a look, the box did have an HDMI spot for it so it should hook up. Why would I need a capture card though? What are they and what do they do? 

 

Wait wait wait... Just looked a few up and they have HDMI as well, shouldn't HDMI just work fine? 

 

Well you said you wanted to watch ON YOUR PC. Most PCs don't come with HDMI input standard, only output. However, if you just want to watch TV using YOUR MONITOR, all you need to do is figure out audio. Your monitor may or may not have internal speakers, I don't know what you have.

[-BirdiE-]

JustTooDank hit the nail on the head. Are you looking to have the cable feed go in to your PC, or do you just want to watch it on the same monitor that you use for your computer?

 

Simply getting it to display on your monitor is easy.. You just use it as you would a TV.

 

If you want to be able to pull it up in Windows (or whatever OS you might be using) you're going to need to buy a capture card, or something to that effect, so that you have a way to INPUT the video feed in to your computer, and the software to access the input.

[Guest]

JustTooDank hit the nail on the head. Are you looking to have the cable feed go in to your PC, or do you just want to watch it on the same monitor that you use for your computer?

 

Simply getting it to display on your monitor is easy.. You just use it as you would a TV.

 

If you want to be able to pull it up in Windows (or whatever OS you might be using) you're going to need to buy a capture card, or something to that effect, so that you have a way to INPUT the video feed in to your computer, and the software to access the input.

We already figured it out, this is an old topic.