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[pcstockton]

I must be missing something....  Why are people using MC for TV?  I get using MC for video, pics, music, and other "local" files.  But for TV dont people simply have a cable box connected to their TVs?

So I figured I was missing the boat on why people watch TV inside MC? 

Is it so you dont have to pay for a DVR cable box and record shows on your PC?  Is it because you dont have a cable box altogether (didnt think that was possible these days). 

Curious....

Thanks!
Patrick

[JimH]

I must be missing something....  Why are people using MC for TV?  I get using MC for video, pics, music, and other "local" files.  But for TV dont people simply have a cable box connected to their TVs?

So I figured I was missing the boat on why people watch TV inside MC?  

In the U.S., over the air TV broadcasts are all digital, so the quality can be great.

A lot of people here are discontinuing cable and using MC or other software as a video recorder, much like a TiVo. 

I made a switch about three years ago, so I've saved about $3600 since.

More here:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Television

[kensn]

The reason for me is to use my HTPCs as DVRs. I have a Hauppauge 2250 in each of my HTPCs. Each of these allow me to record 2 Tv shows at the same time, and watch one of them while recording. I do not have set top boxes on either of these TVs. WMC has a very stable interface for TV and the picture quality seems very good to me. To have this functionality in MC would allow me to have a single app for everything. It is kinda like saying.. Don't people have CD players hooked up to there stereos to listen to Cds.

Ken

[pcstockton]

In the U.S., over the air TV broadcasts are all digital, so the quality can be great.

A lot of people here are discontinuing cable and using MC or other software as a video recorder, much like a TiVo. 

I made a switch about three years ago, so I've saved about $3600 since.

More here:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Television

I will check out the link to see what's what.

If you dont have cable where do you get the content?  Or do you only "watch" those dozen or so Over-the-air channels? 

Thanks.... just trying to understand if there is any relevance in my world for MC+TV other than saving the $10 a month for a DVR box.

-Patrick

[kensn]

In WMC, with my 2250, I connect the cable directly to the card. I have not done over the air yet.. But I want to try because I live in a good location for it and it is uncompressed HD. My plan is to also go to a cable card tuner in my main HTPC to get all the cable channels provided.

[pcstockton]

aha.... so I can ditch the cable box then buy a PCI card of some kind that I would connect the cable coax to?  Models?  Prices?

Thanks!
Patrick

[imugli]

I use MC for TV (Purely OTA) pretty much for the same reason as Ken.

It's my PVR and allows me to use 1 input for everything without needing to change inputs every time I want to go from Video/Movies to TV.

Also, even my sub $100 Logitech 5.1 speakers sound better than my TV speakers...

[pcstockton]

I send out the optical digital from my cable box to my 5.1 receiver.

I think I would need to more things to do this.... a PCI card with a coax input (is this a "video card"?) and a 5.1 sound card right??

Oh and agreed on TV speakers.  I don't think Ive actually ever heard mine.

Is anyone doing this with actual cable (Comcast) service, or just OTA?  Im not giving up IFC, Comedy Central, Science and Nat Geo. 

Thanks!
Patrick

[Yaobing]

Right now, we do not support digital cable directly.  There are fewer and fewer analog cable channels available directly (coax cable to TV tuner card).  For now you will still need to keep using your Set top box, and a video capture card to capture the output from STB.

OTA digital TV signals can be directly captured in MC, if you have correct tuner card.  You can buy a card that has dual tuner (both digital and analog tuners) and use digital tuner for OTA digital TV and the analog tuner/input lines for cable STB.

[Blk02]

aha.... so I can ditch the cable box then buy a PCI card of some kind that I would connect the cable coax to?  Models?  Prices?

Thanks!
Patrick

Checkout the Ceton InfiniTV Quad Tuner PCI Card.  It can record up to 4 digital HD broadcasts at once and it supports DRM so it will work with any local cable provider that supports the Cable Card standard.  The only downside is that it only integrates with Windows Media Center not JRiver.  I have been using the Ceton tuner card since it came out and it has been flawless with Windows Media Center (no bugs, no dropouts, no pixelation, etc.).  As far as I know the Ceton tuner card is the only solution that offers a complete replacement for your HD-DVR Cable Box.  In addtion, the Ceton card works with Windows Media Center Extenders so you can assign one of the 4 tuners to your Xbox 360 and watch recorded or live TV in another room.  You can also assign one of the 4 tuners to another computer so you can watch recorded or live TV on another computer in the house.  I live next to one of the suppliers for Ceton cards and they ship out hundreds per week.  I have been very happy with mine.

[jreigner]

Thanks.... just trying to understand if there is any relevance in my world for MC+TV other than saving the $10 a month for a DVR box.

-Patrick

I don't know about you, but where I live I am hardly saving 10$ a month by using OTA Hd signals. By using MC as a whole house HTPC, I too am saving 1200+$ a year and having greater flexibility and control over my media. I personally loved my directv dvr's but at the current cost and the fact that I must pay as a group for channels I'll never(and I can't see who does) watch, the OTA solution works for me.

[pcstockton]

My DVR/HD box is about $10 a month.  Yaobing above says I cannot use MC for digital cable. 
We have about 10 OTA HD channels, mostly network TV which I dont watch much.

So I am not really sure how I can use MC to save me on my $50 cable bill.

$1200???
Thats some seriously expensive cable.

[Yaobing]

My cable provider charges a fee (I do not remember what amount as I do not use it) for DVR STB.  They do provide non-DVR STBs for free, so I use STB with a capture device in MC.  What I said previously was that you can not use digital cable directly in MC without an STB.

[gtgray]

My cable provider charges a fee (I do not remember what amount as I do not use it) for DVR STB.  They do provide non-DVR STBs for free, so I use STB with a capture device in MC.  What I said previously was that you can not use digital cable directly in MC without an STB.

Which of course most of understand. We are advocating digital cable card tuner support. I have a Ceton and 2 dual tuner HD Homeruns. The nice thing about digital cable card tuners is that normally the first cable card is free. I do not rent any equipment from my cable company but with the Ceton I am able to view digital cable including premium content in several rooms. Assuming I was prepared to pay an $8.00 a month rental I could use a second Ceton adding 4 more tuners, or a Silcon Dust HD Prime (3 addittional tuners) MicroCenter sells the HD Prime for $210 . It doesn't take long before you can offset the cost of the HD Prime by not paying rentals on a single STB box. That it can replace multiple  STBs makes it a very attractive propostion financially.

[jreigner]

My DVR/HD box is about $10 a month.  Yaobing above says I cannot use MC for digital cable. 
We have about 10 OTA HD channels, mostly network TV which I dont watch much.

So I am not really sure how I can use MC to save me on my $50 cable bill.

$1200???
Thats some seriously expensive cable.

I was referring to a multi dvr directv system in hd with premium channels i had. I had no problems going to OTA, had to ween my family off of it though.

[CountryBumkin]

I send out the optical digital from my cable box to my 5.1 receiver.

I think I would need to more things to do this.... a PCI card with a coax input (is this a "video card"?) and a 5.1 sound card right??

Oh and agreed on TV speakers.  I don't think Ive actually ever heard mine.

Is anyone doing this with actual cable (Comcast) service, or just OTA?  Im not giving up IFC, Comedy Central, Science and Nat Geo. 

Thanks!
Patrick

It's not all about Cable either, some of us use Satalite (Dish, Directv). Being able to record late-night movies or save a TV series on our HTPC is a great plus. My D* STB saves movies/shows too but it doesn't hold all that much and if the unit ever needs to be replaced or I cancel the service, I lose everything. So saving it on my HTPC is a great feature. It's not about saving any money for me - it's about saving my programs on a drive that I own and building up collection of movies/shows that I want to keep.

[pcstockton]

I was referring to a multi dvr directv system in hd with premium channels i had. I had no problems going to OTA, had to ween my family off of it though.

Well yeah....  If i cancelled my cable I would certainly save about $600 a year.  And I dont watch much TV.  But I am willing to pay about $50 a month to have it.

The reason I started this thread was to find out how/why people were using MC for TV.  In my case it would only replace my DVR Box which I need anyway for the HD side of things.

No big deal.  I am not a huge TV watcher and like keeping it apart from the hifi.

Cheers,
Patrick

[BartMan01]

For me, switching to the Ceton for Cable TV is saving me between $30-40 a month with Comcast.  That is just from replacing 2 HD DVRs once all of the fees and taxes are factored in.  My original estimate of savings was $10 a month less than that when I made the decision, the actual amount of 'hidden' in plain sight fees that actually dropped off my bill was a surprise.  Of course it made it easier since I already had a spare XBox 360 to use as an extender on our main TV downstairs.

[Trond-Eirik]

I must be missing something....  Why are people using MC for TV?  I get using MC for video, pics, music, and other "local" files.  But for TV dont people simply have a cable box connected to their TVs?

So I figured I was missing the boat on why people watch TV inside MC? 

Is it so you dont have to pay for a DVR cable box and record shows on your PC?  Is it because you dont have a cable box altogether (didnt think that was possible these days). 

Curious....

Thanks!
Patrick

For me its about several things:
- less boxes in my living room (no cd-player, no dvd-player, no blu-ray player and... no DVR cable box)
- one integrated and total media experience, and from that pespective tv is what I and my family uses the most

I really prefer to have it all in one place, with one system and with one - 4 button - remote...