Tv tuner with Cable service

[marcolisi]

Hello guys.

I have a pinnacle pctv 310i , and I would like to know which program I could use to use the build in tv tuner of my card , to set up the channel of my service Road Runner Time Warner Cable USA New York .

Thank u

[jggimi]

Your driver software, if it supports tuners (and most or all do), will work just fine with any of the appropriate and applicable tools mentioned in our Capture Guide and our FAQ. As long as your service includes analog video channels, you may capture/watch video with them. If you've got a contract for "digital cable" your capture device won't see those channels, as they are not analog video. You can still capture or watch them, but via your set top cable box.

[marcolisi]

Yes, I have a contract with my cable company.

The problem is this :

If I use the S-video imput , I can record the chennels , but to swith from 1 channel to another I need to use the cable box remote controll . This means that if I want to record with my video card another channel while I am watching another on the tv , I CAN'T .

So I was thinking if I could use the tv tuner that is inside my tv card , scanning all the channels and saving the list of channels in my program ( iuvcr , virtualdub ) and thend browsing the channel using the program and recording them , I could be indipendent from my cable box.

But I can NOT scasn the channel with my tv card . I mean after all the scan it gives me just channel 3 , where is recorded the same station that I see on tv via mu cable box. If I change the channel on the cable box , in the channel 3 of my tv card , I see the other program.

Can I record all the positions of all the tv channels from the cable box to my tv tuner ??

thank u

[jggimi]

...I want to record with my video card another channel while I am watching another on the tv , I CAN'T ....You are correct, digital channels must be converted to analog before you can capture them. You are limited by the number of tuners in your cable box, and its conversion of digital to analog...I could be indipendent from my cable box....Only if you also have analog channels, and either have your tuner connected in front of the box, or the box set to passthrough all RF signals.But I can NOT scasn the channel with my tv card .That is because: You may or may not have analog channels, depending on your service If your cable box is "in front" of your capture card, channels may be blocked. As I mentioned, some set top boxes can be set to allow RF passthrough, but this depends both on the box, and on the whim of your cable provider.An alternative, if you want to capture one digital channel while watching another, is to acquire a second cable box from your cable company.

[jggimi]

I may have been misleading you, slightly. My assumption was that your capture tuner was analog only. The 310i can handle "digital cable" (DVB-T), per http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+Analog_Digital+PVR/PCTV+310i but you will still need to either run your cable box with RF passthrough, or install a splitter in order to receive RF at the 310i. You might also find our HDTV/DVB/TiVo forum helpful: http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?f=64

[marcolisi]

hello, sorry to bother u , but I am really new at this.

When u say :

either run your cable box with RF passthrough, or install a splitter in order to receive RF at the 310i

what I should do ??

I mean , if I use the splitter where I should put it ??

Right now I have 1 splitter . The cable from the wall goes to the splitter and then from the splitters there are 2 cable that comes out . 1 goes to the pc cable modem and the other cable goes to the cable box.
Then I put a cable from the out of my cable box to the pc video capture card.
Then I installed progdvb , but when I open it , I do not understand how can I scan for channels.
If I just do channel search under channel list , it starts scanning , but at the end nothing happen.

Can u hrelp me please ??

Do I should use the other splitter ??
Where I should put it ??
What does it meand "run your cable box with RF passthrough" ?

Please , try to use childish words/explanetition

thank u again

[jggimi]

Here is an ascii "picture" of what you've described as your RF (radio frequency) connections:
|----modem
----cable service --|
|----Set Top Box----capture cardThe problem, as you describe it, is that your Set Top Box ("STB") apparently only outputs a single RF channel.

You can check to see if this apparent behavior is caused by the STB, by directly connecting your capture card. Disconnect the incoming cable from the back of the STB, and plug it directly into your PC, like so:
|----modem
----cable service --|
|----capture cardIf you are able to tune more than just channel 3, then you have confirmed that this is the problem. You may be able to get around it, if the STB can use "RF Passthrough."

"RF Passthrough" or "RF Passthru" (alternative spelling) is a term used by some STB manufacturers (Motorola, General Instrument, Scientific Atlanta, and perhaps others) to describe a feature where all of the RF signals that come IN to a Set Top Box are also allowed to go OUT. This is a feature, not a standard condition, in STBs produced by those manufacturers. If the box has this feature, it may or may not be functional, depending upon how your cable company configured the box. My STBs are Motorola, and while the feature is listed, it is non-functional, because that is how my cable company wants it.

The way to bypass this RF Passthru problem is to acquire either a 2nd splitter or a 3-way splitter in order to configure your environment like so:THREE WAY:

|----modem
----cable service --|
|----Set Top Box
|
|----capture card

2ND SPLITTER:

|----modem
----cable service --|
|
|----|
|----Set Top Box
|
|----capture card.I hope this clarifies our discussion.

[marcolisi]

hi,

sorry for the late unswer.

My question is :

using the 2 splitters , I do not understand why I should attach the second splitter before the cable goes to the cable box.

What I mean is that in theory I can NOT get any program if my cable line does not goes first to the cable box , because is the cable box that let me to visualize the programs coming out from the cable coming out from the wall.

If I attach the cable coming from the wall directly to the capture card , or sing the splitter befor the cable pass by the cable box , I would only see free regular channels .
So I was thinking to put the second splitter attached to a cable coming out from the cable box.

I did this , but iuvcr scann and find me 150 channel , but they all appear black ( no signal,no channels ).

what do u think ???

Thank u for everythink

[jggimi]

I think you need to reread what I wrote above, in particular:The problem, as you describe it, is that your Set Top Box ("STB") apparently only outputs a single RF channel. If you insist on recording one channel while watching another, and you want to have access to all premimum channels, you also need a second cable box.

[LocalH]

And then you still won't be able to change channels from your PC without rigging up some sort of IR controller to your PC, placing it directly in front of the second box's remote sensor.

[Capsbackup]

Just wondering... will the RF/ " coax " output from say a Motorola HD Cable box output the HD resolution like you get thru the component or HDMI cables ? And, if so, can that in turn be used to capture HD channels such as HBO, Cinemax, etc. on the PC tuner card ?

[LocalH]

Nope. The HD is usually encrypted (especially for HBO and the like), and the only possibly way to even have a chance at getting directly at the raw video would be to get a digital tuner card that supports CableCARD, and get a CableCARD from your cable company (assuming they even offer them in the first place). From there, I would imagine that there would be some way to extract the video, but I've not ever tried.