[zeeman85]

Hi Guys,

I have been looking all over the place but I can't get an answer.

I want to be able to hook up my Cable to my Window Media Center that I am running on Windows 7 (32). On my box I have a cable in (coax cable) and below a cable out (coax cable). If I get a coax cable and take it from the cable out on my set top box to a tuner card will I be able to do the following:

Watch my cable via Windows Media Center?
Record cable via Windows Media Center?
Change channels via Windows Media Center?
Have the EPG working?

If this is not possible, is there any other way to do it?

Also, Im not sure what card to get for my PC.

If this thread alreadyexists, please let me know so I don't waste your time.

Thanks.

[m.stephens]

The coax out will carry whatever the box is tuned to remodulated (with mono sound) onto a normal analogue TV channel ( in the same way as old VCRs). It may also have some unencrypted analogue TV and radio channels if your particular box passes it through and the analogue cable service hasn't been turned off in your area yet.

Although you can buy cable TV cards for PCs, VM only allow their own boxes to be connected. You could probably do something with the SCART output going into an analogue AV card on the PC but you need to have some way for the PC to change the channel on the STB. As far as I know, the only way to do this would be to have the PC control something which emulates the actual remote control as none of the useful looking input connections on the box are activated.

The easy solution is to ditch the PC and pay for the V+ box.

[JonMace]

You want an analogue TV card and the mce remote it also comes with the IR wands, its a much better setup than V+

[m.stephens]

Originally Posted by JonMace

You want an analogue TV card and the mce remote it also comes with the IR wands, its a much better setup than V+

Hmmmm you'll end up with mono sound and far from stunning picture quality if you use an analogue TV card as the STB takes the digital input, converts it to analogue and then remodulates it with mono sound onto an analogue UHF channel for the TV card to demodulate and redigitise so that the PC can use it (and convert it all back to analogue for the VGA display). The best you can ever hope for is worse than what you would get using the SCART output in composite mode.

You'd be better off using an analogue to digital video card (ideally RGB) and taking sound and video off the SCART.

Also the remote control issue might be a problem if you have an STB which uses IRDA ( the older Pace boxes).


The fundamental issue is that you can't legally stick a DVB-C card into a PC and use it to watch and/or record Virgin Media which would be the easiest technical option.

[Bojanglez]

Originally Posted by m.stephens

The fundamental issue is that you can't legally stick a DVB-C card into a PC and use it to watch and/or record Virgin Media which would be the easiest technical option.

I am not sure if it is actually illegal, but it is a violation of the Virgin Media Terms and Conditions, so they could terminate your service. If you somehow had access to a cable feed, but were not a VM subscriber and just accessing freeview channels using a DVB-C card, I don't think they could do anything apart from try and stop the feed getting to you.

[Julie]

Originally Posted by Bojanglez

I am not sure if it is actually illegal, but it is a violation of the Virgin Media Terms and Conditions,

Agreed, thread now closed.