Digital Cable

[Lamont]

Are there any cards that can deal with Digital Cable? I have Cox Communication?

 

[valve1138]

Not yet, but a new tech is supposed to be out soon, Cable Card or something like that.

 

[Erasmus354]

I think regular tuners will work with the digital cable. I have digital cable from cox and I can take the cable from the wall and plug it into the TV and it will work fine. Just because you can use it with the box and get the digital quality and menus doesn't mean that it cant be used with normal tv-tuners. (I cant imagine that my 7 year old tv would be any different than any of the tv tuners on the market today).

 

[IDversusEGO]

digital cable is only digital int he upper, extended channels. the lower basic channels are analog. that is why you can stick the cable into your tuenr card and it works fine. There are no cards in the us market that can descramble the encrypted cable signal.

 

[n64man120]

As I understand it, for getting digital cable on an HTPC... you hook up your cable box first, and then have that go into your tuner card. Then you need an IR Blaster box set-up so when you change channels on your HTPC it sends the signal to your cablebox to change channels. I don't think there's any tuners out to get digital channels without the separate box.

 

[IDversusEGO]

B - I - N - G - O

 

[Daemon1313]

Depending on the cable box you have, there may also be the option of using a serial controller. I use serial to control the DCT2000 box I got from Comcast.

 

[Veldrid]

Anyone have any recommendations for IR Blasters/Remotes?

 

[IDversusEGO]

USB-UIRT is the most stable.

 

[CSSmitty]

does the menu and TV guide work?

 

[bbboza]

get mce2005. the remote bundled with it contains two IR emitters to control STBs. Worth a look if you're looking for a new os upgrade

BBBOZA

 

[CrimandEvil]

Digital cable box> Analog out> PVR capture card

Right now thats the only way to do it but your digtal signal gets converted into an analog signal and only the first 125 channels work. Good news is that later this year Microsoft is release an update to MCE (titled MCE2k6) that adds support for Cable Card which is a decoder card that you get from your Cable Company that plugs into your TV and lets you watch Digital cable (sorry Sat doesn't support it) without having to get a cable box. Hopefully this means that well see the CC plug in decoder cards show up for sale on sites like Newegg and other PVR apps begin to support it soon after.

For controlling your CB try looking to see if it has serial since some apps are able to control it over serial (and some cases even USB), if not then you have to get an IR blaster like many have mentioned already.

 

[CSSmitty]

Digital cable box> Analog out> PVR capture card

Right now thats the only way to do it but your digtal signal gets converted into an analog signal and only the first 125 channels work. Good news is that later this year Microsoft is release an update to MCE (titled MCE2k6) that adds support for Cable Card which is a decoder card that you get from your Cable Company that plugs into your TV and lets you watch Digital cable (sorry Sat doesn't support it) without having to get a cable box. Hopefully this means that well see the CC plug in decoder cards show up for sale on sites like Newegg and other PVR apps begin to support it soon after.

For controlling your CB try looking to see if it has serial since some apps are able to control it over serial (and some cases even USB), if not then you have to get an IR blaster like many have mentioned already.

Thank You, That's all i have been trying to figure out.