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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">> Initially, I'd like to be able to watch and record shows over TWC from my desktop</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">>recommendations or experience with a well-supported TV Tuner card on the more >popular GNU/Linux.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Google PCHDTV</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">> Can I pretty much pick from any of the newer Hauppauge<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>hardware?</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">>Likely yes, I would recommend checking to see what chip is used in any card you plan >to buy and see what you can find out about its Linux support </font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">>I understand that to decode most HDTV I'd probably need a cable</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">>receiver feeding into the tuner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Yes, this is true for receiving the content that TWC has to sell you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>See below for a greatly simplified over-the-air option as a first step.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">>That's not a huge deal, but would obviously be better without it.</font></p>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">I would recommend getting started without the complications of a cable box.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">>I'd like to be able to watch and record at the same time (I think), so I'd either </font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">>need two cards or a dual tuner, right?</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">In general yes, this is correct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(I have a more complicated answer that only applies in limited cases that I won’t bore you with.)</font></div>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Response to later posts and my musings:</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Nowadays I think video capture might be considered a sub-function of most TV tuner cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I could be wrong but I think there used to be devices that would capture the images that were being sent out the PC’s video.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>All of my TV tuner cards, both older analog and newer digital cards, have plugs that could digitize composite (yellow plug) tv signal and some of my tuner cards have s-video (round plug) input plugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Both of these additional signals are analog, I don’t know of any tuner cards that also have digital composite (red, green, blue plug) capture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Composite is a much better digital signal.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">I've had a Linux PC setup as a personal video recoders (PVR) for several years now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, all of my experience has been with over-the-air (OTA) content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Recently I did have Surewest cable for a two months but I never tried to integrate content from their cable box into my PC based PVR.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I use MythTV to control my PVR.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">After 18-24 mo. of having a stable analog system Jim Manly (UncleJim) and I both ordered and started working with digital tuner cards sold by PCHDTV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We both got model 3000 cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Since then Jim has added a model 5000, I have moved on to a different tuner device.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We used PCHDTV because there cards were specifically advertised to work with Linux.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I still have my model 3000 you are welcome to experiment with it.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">As for capturing a signal from the cable company I think you would have several options. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’ll assume there is no Linux solution that incorporates any “cableCARD” implementation that TWC may use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Pardon me if the following is overly simplified, I’ve recently been thinking about this problem and this is as much of a recap for myself as it is a specific answer to your question(s). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So just working from the back panel of a TWC digital set-top box (STB) you might have the following output options:</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">--Wire-fire<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>this seems like it would be a great interface for transferring info back and forth from STB to PC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I don’t know that TWC publishes any info on how to communicate with their STB via this interface.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">--HDMI will have all the digital video and audio signal contained within one simple wire and connection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Unfortunately I know of no PC hardware that can capture signal from HDMI.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">--Antenna (co-axial cable) pass thru to a PC tuner card. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For this setup I think you get a tuner card similar to the one mentioned above and always have it tuned to channel 3 or 4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What I don’t know if the signal coming out of the STB along co-axial will have true high-def (HD) content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even the cable companies digital STB may output a signal on that co-axial that is standard definition analog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(see below for more comments on a variation of this setup)</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">--Component Video<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(red, green, and blue plugs)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>digital output from these plugs might be captured with some sort of video capture card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Again this functionality _might_ be incorporated with newer tuner cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Again no first-hand knowledge here, my older cards will have no such inputs).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>With this and the remaining setups you will also have to separately capture the left and right audio output from the STB and into your line-in of the PC’s sound card.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">--S/Video (round plug) or Composite<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(yellow plug) analog video signal that can be captured with many of the PC tuner cards. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I wouldn’t even consider messing with such low quality signal unless it will be viewed on an older analog television. </font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Note that with all of these setups (sans the enigmatic wire-fire interface) you will have to be able to control the STB from the PC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Likely this will be done thru an infrared (IR) signal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>MythTV is well equipped to do this if you have the hardware.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>M$ made a great little USB device that came with their Windows Media Edition of XP not only can the device receive IR signals from a normal hand held remote it also has something called a IR blaster that can be used to output IR signals to a specific A/V component.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have one that I use the input to control my PVR. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I use the output to control my surround sound amp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This brings up another issue nearly all of the above scenarios result in you losing surround sound information (if the cable company provides it in the first place). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The wiring on these setups can really be a mess, you could easily have upwards of: 3 component cables an 2 audio cables going from STB to PC along with a IR blaster cable going from PC to the front face of the STB. </font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">I would recommend getting started with a _greatly_ simplified setup then building from there:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Rabbit <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>ears<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>--> co-axial --><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>digital tuner device --> motherboard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">This clean setup will allow you to quickly become familiar with whatever PVR software you choose to use and a simple setup is _much_ easier to troubleshoot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Later you will appreciate this as you begin to potentially add devices like a HDTV display, a surround amp. , IR device, plus all the configuring you might like to experiment just within the PVR’s option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Lastly with <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>this setup you will get the best possible audio and video fidelity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The cable and dish companies compresses the signal and in the case of Surewest they stripped out all the surround info. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Above <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I used the term digital tuner device because one as has two viable options here; </font></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font face="Calibri" size="3">1)</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Calibri" size="3">An internal tuner card were digital audio and video streams are captured and place on the data bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’ve got an unused one.</font></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font face="Calibri" size="3">2)</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Calibri" size="3">A external tuner box sold my HDHomeRun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have one of these and I highly recommend them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The box consists of a digital tuner (mine has two), an antenna hookup, and an Ethernet port.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My PVR software, MythTV, already<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>has this device as a configuration option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>With this tuner device I don’t use up a cards slot and as a slight added feature my wife’s upstairs Window7 machine, or any other machine on the local network, can also control and receive output from the tuner(s).</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">With either of these devices the PVR software will seamlessly be able to tune to whatever OTA channel is needed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Later once this setup is working you might try to use the co-axial output from the STB instead of the OTA signal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">I’ve never had cable except for the recent two month trial that was ostensibly as a means to get access to all the of the NCAA basketball tournament games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’ve since told people, “I can take or leave cable but I will never go without a PVR”.</font></p>
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<div>Good luck </div>
<div>Rod </div>
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