So the TV in my bedroom broke. I also keep my computer in my bedroom. I came up with the brilliant idea: Instead of shelling out $400 or so on a new TV why don’t I just buy a TV card and use the computer as my new TV?
Any reason why I wouldn’t want to do this?
My main concern is I really like my cable box. I’m familiar with it’s functions and I’m familiar with it’s remote. Will I still be able to use it if I get a TV card?
Thanks for any input.
Is your cable box also a digital recorder? Cause if it’s not, you will be able to use your pc as a “Tivo” unit if you install a tuner card.
You can do this two ways, you can either simply use the PC monitor as an extension of the cable box and keep the controls the same (no flexible recording options) or you can plug the cable line directly into your pc and use the software that comes with the tuner card to record and control the pc like you did the cable box. You’ll just have to get used to the new software and remote. Most will come with their own remote and ir receiver for it.
I picked up a Pinnacle TV tuner awhile back, it’s great. I used it to watch tv on my computer for awhile, but then we decided to use it for the tv in the living room instead.
We took an old computer and hooked it up with the tv tuner card and installed the Sage TV Media Center software. I love it. It’s better than tivo.
I would set it up like this.
Two tuner cards, one for direct input from the cable box for premium channels and the other card to be used for everday surfing and recording of non-premium content.
First, what kind of cable service do you get/would like to get? You basically have really only two options:
Get a tuner card and Get your cable directly to your tuner. This way you should have access to both local Hd/digital content, and the basic analog cable channels (I do this).
You can get all your digital and subscription channels from cable/Fios IF you purchase a certified cable card PC specifically for this purpose (I plan on doing this next year when I switch to Fios).
So long as you can live with local HD and local analog (basic) cable then get yourself a hybrid tuner. I use sliconedust’s HdHomeRun. It’s a network tuner so any PC with access to your network can access the tuners. but any hybrid will do. Then split the signal and you should have access to both the analog basic cable channels and the digital and local HD channels via the unencrypted QAM signal. Your Pc should treat the same tuner as two tuners, and allow you to watch one while you record/time shift the other and vice versa.
As for software, I’m very happy with Vista’s built in Media center. I can stream netflix to it, all my video podcasts, and handles my digital video and DVD collection just fine. It also allows you to pause and record live TV, and it’s easy to set up series recordings, search the guide, etc.
I have had 2 ATI’s, very buggy software. Your hard drive is always writing so that you can pause live TV. I would rather wear out a DVR HD then my computers. I gave up and us a DVR now.
I don’t see the logic in that.
On the one hand you have a stand alone appliance which usually retails for several hundred bucks. On the other hand you have the modular machine that is your PC. If the hard drive fails on either one, which is going to be the simplest, least expensive repair? Which one would have been easier to have backed up so that your shows aren’t all gone up in smoke?
Is this question for me? If so,
DVR is Comcast’s, it’s free replacement
Any episode of South Park can be seen on demand or in repeats
If I’m using the computer for a tuner and my wife wants to use the computer = problem.
I have had the DVR fail 2 times over the years and nothing on its HD was nearly as important as my computer.
You can use a dedicated computer just for TV but it’s not like it could be an obsolete 486
We’ve had a couple of TV cards.
Pro - everythings in one place.
Combined cost is usually less.
Con - It’s difficult to watch TV and use the computer at the same time.
The remotes for the TV cards have been less then optimal.
Software can be buggy. We ended up spending time reconfiguring the software everytime there was an update to it.
There are also a few ways to tackle the TV use and computer use issues.
Obviously, you can get a second computer just to do computer things (what I did). You can also opt for an extender. Essentially a piece of hardware that connects to your computer via wired or wireless connection. They have them for about $150 or so for Vista’s media center. The xbox 360 can also be sued as a media center extender, so you’re set if you have one of those.
Another option is to run the TV as a second monitor and run media center on that monitor.