Hectic
27th October 2007, 15:47
For the past few years I have been using an ATI AIW 9000 PRO. Considering the NBA season is starting, and literally every one of my team's games will be broadcasted on TV, most in high def over a new Comcast sports channel, I got the urge to look into HD options on the PC.
I went to Best Buy and picked up an ATI HD Wonder 650 PCI. Came home and installed it figuring it would recieve ClearQAM signals, but to my fault, it is the PCIe version that supports QAM. Anyway, I decided to see how the OTA channels looked, and was more than surprised at the great quality, recordings look just as good. Of course, the HD channel I need comes in via Comcast, not OTA. I do have digital cable BTW, just no box that supports HD to test with ATM.
Of course I could always grab the PCIe version of the ATI card which supports clearQAM, but for all I know, Comcast encrypts the channel and I will be no better off than I am now with the standard PCI card..
Now, if I go pick up an HD ready digital cable box from Comcast, will it act as a cablecard/descrambler and clear up all the encrypted channels and in sense, send the same signal from the coaxial output to the ATI card as if they were an OTA channel? Or would it be a ClearQAM signal? Will it even send a digital signal at all through the coax output or do all new cable boxes have component output for DTVs? The only inputs on the capture card are TV/FM antenna, analog TV and composite/s-video. No component input, the only input on the card that supports a digital or HD signal is coaxial and is meant for connecting an external antenna. Anyone have any ideas on how to get the card to accept a digital HD signal from the cable box? From what I can see, there is no "tune to channel 3" when it comes to HDTV, but it seems to me that it has to be possible considering the original signal comes in via coax in the first place. Please, someone shed some light on my options here if ya can.
Thanks
I went to Best Buy and picked up an ATI HD Wonder 650 PCI. Came home and installed it figuring it would recieve ClearQAM signals, but to my fault, it is the PCIe version that supports QAM. Anyway, I decided to see how the OTA channels looked, and was more than surprised at the great quality, recordings look just as good. Of course, the HD channel I need comes in via Comcast, not OTA. I do have digital cable BTW, just no box that supports HD to test with ATM.
Of course I could always grab the PCIe version of the ATI card which supports clearQAM, but for all I know, Comcast encrypts the channel and I will be no better off than I am now with the standard PCI card..
Now, if I go pick up an HD ready digital cable box from Comcast, will it act as a cablecard/descrambler and clear up all the encrypted channels and in sense, send the same signal from the coaxial output to the ATI card as if they were an OTA channel? Or would it be a ClearQAM signal? Will it even send a digital signal at all through the coax output or do all new cable boxes have component output for DTVs? The only inputs on the capture card are TV/FM antenna, analog TV and composite/s-video. No component input, the only input on the card that supports a digital or HD signal is coaxial and is meant for connecting an external antenna. Anyone have any ideas on how to get the card to accept a digital HD signal from the cable box? From what I can see, there is no "tune to channel 3" when it comes to HDTV, but it seems to me that it has to be possible considering the original signal comes in via coax in the first place. Please, someone shed some light on my options here if ya can.
Thanks