HDTV and Digital Cable Tuning with HTPC
Cyclonite
Tampa, Florida Icrontian
I'm currently in the process of bumping down all my machines, and I'm going to have a third rig that wont be doing much. I'd like to turn it into a media PC. I have a few questions, as I'm hoping to be able to remove one of my set-top boxes in the process.
1. Is there a tuner card available that can pick up the same stations my cable provided set-top box provides. This includes the upper HD channels.
2. With this in mind, what is the best bang-for-your-buck PVR HD tuner card? I assume PCIe would be better than PCI. If there's something a little above the "bang-for-your-buck" category, I may be willing to pay.
3. I'm going to need a decent sound card with this, preferably with optical digital output. Any recommendations? Nothing super expensive.
4. Current specs on the system I'll be using are:
Athlon64 3000+
1 GB DDR
160 GB HDD
6600GT 128MB
Are these sufficient for what I want to do? The video card has a little dongle with component output.
Thanks for your help!
1. Is there a tuner card available that can pick up the same stations my cable provided set-top box provides. This includes the upper HD channels.
2. With this in mind, what is the best bang-for-your-buck PVR HD tuner card? I assume PCIe would be better than PCI. If there's something a little above the "bang-for-your-buck" category, I may be willing to pay.
3. I'm going to need a decent sound card with this, preferably with optical digital output. Any recommendations? Nothing super expensive.
4. Current specs on the system I'll be using are:
Athlon64 3000+
1 GB DDR
160 GB HDD
6600GT 128MB
Are these sufficient for what I want to do? The video card has a little dongle with component output.
Thanks for your help!
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//Edit: Scratch that. I can't seem to find a cableCARD ready tuner, anyway. Maybe I'll have to go with OTA local HD stations. Blegh.
I'm going to keep looking, but now I'm kind of bummed.
That's my understanding. It is a bummer. DRM wins again
Have you seen Engadget's CableCARD experience with the ATI tuner?
I think my project has collapsed more quickly than I expected it to. I really wanted to get rid of that awful Scientific Atlanta box.
It is still not a practical project yet.
I am currently in the process of building myself a HTPC.
Also I am thinking that the A64 3000+ with only 1 gig of mem and only 160 gigs might be the bare min for a HTPC. I've seen 1080p eat up systems.
I really just want to get rid of that outrageous DVR cost Brighthouse tacks on my bill every month. I happen to have the extra components lying around, so all I need is the tuner and sound cards.