A probably dumb question about Broadband cable

Factual Questions
1

I just recently got digital cable TV and broadband internet. Is it possible to watch digital cable TV on my computer? How? Also I have an unused cable hookup. Could I hook up another TV to that and watch digital cable?

2

You could buy a TV tuner card and watch cable on your computer. You can also connect a second set to the unused cable. You will probably get most but not all of the cable channels.

Good luck
SSG Schwartz

3

What channels you can view on the unused cable hookup may depend on your cable company’s scrambling policy. When I had Comcast in Chicago the only channels I could watch without using the cable box were the “basic package” channels. However, Time Warner in NC lets me watch everything but the premium channels.

4

I don’t know of any current computer hardware that can decode encrypted digital broadcasts. This may change in the near future, though.

5

We have to run the TV signal through a digital cable box, and then to a TV tuner card in the computer. If we don’t care about the digital channels, leaving the extended basic channels, then we can plug the cable straight into the TV tuner card. Nothing like having 2 remotes for your computer. One for the cable box, one for the TV tuner.

6

No. But you can get the non-digital channels (assuming the TV is cable-ready, i.e. was built sometime with the last six hundred years). You need a cable box to get the digital channels.

7

CableCARDs allow such a thing, but they’re still a bit ways off I believe due to cable companies holding them back and whatnot… Here’s the full article: CableCARD - Wikipedia

8

A tv tuner card will allow for the cable to be viewed on the monitor. Either it will decode the cable for you or you will need to input from the cable decoder via the input jacks. The first gives you the easiest interface, while the second requires you to change channels at the cable decoder box which is much less desirable.

9

I have digital cable service and a tuner card in my computer, but it only allows me to recieve the basic cable channels, like a TV without a cable box.

10

  1. You can watch analog cable channels through a standard TV Tuner on your computer.

  2. You can watch (unencrypted) digital cable channels (includes HD - again unencrypted) using a tv tuner with QAM on your PC.

  3. You can also hook up your digital cable box to your PC through firewire or USB and use it as a tuner, though not all boxes allow this.

  4. Finally, you can watch encrypted digital content on your PC through cableCARDs but unfortunately you have to have a certified system to pull this off from a PC manufacturer, at least for now, and probably for the forseeable future.

Contemptible cable companies :frowning: