I am Reid Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Dude if you are making a thread about how an interface to a Cable DVR sucks, at lease show some pictures. Take out your camera and take a picture of your TV. it dosnt have anything to do with the looks, the problem is that is slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyde+ Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 Damn, I should have made a video of the old cable box interface, compared to the new one.. only then you would be able to see what I am talking about, what kind of difference we are talking about here.. It is massive. But I will still make a video of this new interface, and to those that never had anything like this, it may look good. But to those of us who experienced the older interface, it certainly is in the class of major fail. Malik, reidtheweed01, I know. Those channels are what you get when you hook up your cable to your TV and set up channels. Those are the only ones we could probably watch and record on MCE. That's it. We just need a Media Center PC with Cable Card jack/input, right? Since cable co allows cable card instead of DVR there should be a way. Or we just need to build a simple media center PC and buy ATI TV WONDER with CableCard support that Malik linked. Dell sells XPS 420 that comes with "Genuine Windows Vista? Home Premium w/ Digital Cable Support SP1" running on ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB supporting HDMI. Since it supports digital cable, I assume this can be used? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malik05 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Damn, I should have made a video of the old cable box interface, compared to the new one.. only then you would be able to see what I am talking about, what kind of difference we are talking about here.. It is massive. But I will still make a video of this new interface, and to those that never had anything like this, it may look good. But to those of us who experienced the older interface, it certainly is in the class of major fail. Malik, reidtheweed01, I know. Those channels are what you get when you hook up your cable to your TV and set up channels. Those are the only ones we could probably watch and record on MCE. That's it. We just need a Media Center PC with Cable Card jack/input, right? Since cable co allows cable card instead of DVR there should be a way. Or we just need to build a simple media center PC and buy ATI TV WONDER with CableCard support that Malik linked. Dell sells XPS 420 that comes with "Genuine Windows Vista? Home Premium w/ Digital Cable Support SP1" running on ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB supporting HDMI. Since it supports digital cable, I assume this can be used? Just wanna make sure it supports CableCard. If it does, then the next step would be to contact your provider and ask them if they support it (if they do, then they should provide the card itself). And then i would start purchasing stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I am Reid Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Just wanna make sure it supports CableCard. If it does, then the next step would be to contact your provider and ask them if they support it (if they do, then they should provide the card itself). And then i would start purchasing stuff. NO, he does not need a cablecard, stop telling him he needs something he dosnt need. All you need is a like what you said a regular ati tv wonder or whatever company you feel like buying a card from. Just a plain ntsc/atsc tuner. MCE will act as your guide. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....AM%20%2f%20NTSC anything there will work for you All you do is install it just like any regular pci card, then you use a regular cable cord and plug it into your cable wall outlet. Just like you would any tv. Then under MCE you go through various setups for the guide and the channels, and you are ready to go. You dont need a cable card, or cable box or any equipment from your cable company to do this. The only thing you need from your cable company is the service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malik05 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 NO, he does not need a cablecard, stop telling him he needs something he dosnt need. All you need is a like what you said a regular ati tv wonder or whatever company you feel like buying a card from. Just a plain ntsc/atsc tuner. MCE will act as your guide.http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....AM%20%2f%20NTSC anything there will work for you All you do is install it just like any regular pci card, then you use a regular cable cord and plug it into your cable wall outlet. Just like you would any tv. Then under MCE you go through various setups for the guide and the channels, and you are ready to go. You dont need a cable card, or cable box or any equipment from your cable company to do this. The only thing you need from your cable company is the service. I think he understand that he does not need a CableCard, however, if he wanted to get the movie channels in HD, such as HBO HD, he would need it because OTA does not cover those in HD, neither does just plugging it in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyde+ Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 Reid and Malik, thanks for both of your posts. I understand that all I need is a TV tuner that supports F.OTA, whataver that tuner is called. I am not sure if that will still work after the conversion, and I assume it will do if I get the digital version (hence price drop in analog PC tuners?) However, if I need to have all the channels that I currently have on my DVR/Cable Box, then I would need a cable card slot on PC instead of the box, which is the only way to get the "scrambled" channels to show up on my PC. This is why I mentioned "software" unscrambler. I know that in Europe you can use a software to receive your digital scrambled channels on your PC and record them. I am not sure if that is done legitimately or via illegal sources, but I am pretty sure no US Cable provider would allow such a thing. :) I think DirecTV allows that, but that's a different story. The problem is I couldn't find anyone selling the cable card tuner for PC seperately, it looks like it must be purchased with with a system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shockz Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I'm curious as to what the new interface looks like? I used to have TWC and i found the interface I used to be pretty drab. Too much yellow and odd font's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I am Reid Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Reid and Malik, thanks for both of your posts. I understand that all I need is a TV tuner that supports F.OTA, whataver that tuner is called. I am not sure if that will still work after the conversion, and I assume it will do if I get the digital version (hence price drop in analog PC tuners?)However, if I need to have all the channels that I currently have on my DVR/Cable Box, then I would need a cable card slot on PC instead of the box, which is the only way to get the "scrambled" channels to show up on my PC. This is why I mentioned "software" unscrambler. I know that in Europe you can use a software to receive your digital scrambled channels on your PC and record them. I am not sure if that is done legitimately or via illegal sources, but I am pretty sure no US Cable provider would allow such a thing. :) I think DirecTV allows that, but that's a different story. The problem is I couldn't find anyone selling the cable card tuner for PC seperately, it looks like it must be purchased with with a system. The digital conversion dosnt have anything to do with cable, everything will work just as it did before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyde+ Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 Oh yeah I know, but I was referring to OTA (in case if I use two tuners, one for OTA and other for Cable) :) So for that, to avoid getting stuck with a non functional tuner, what should I look for in a tuner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I am Reid Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Oh yeah I know, but I was referring to OTA (in case if I use two tuners, one for OTA and other for Cable) :) So for that, to avoid getting stuck with a non functional tuner, what should I look for in a tuner? an ntsc/atsc tuner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosidius Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Thats the new UI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyde+ Posted January 5, 2009 Author Share Posted January 5, 2009 Updated version of the UI is supposed to look like this: beveled headers, that's about it, hopefully it will be faster. passport (the older one which I miss dearly) looked like this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaDude Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Thats the new UI. Yeah, that's what mine looks like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdsams Veteran Posted January 5, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 5, 2009 mine looks like that after about 15 seconds, terriable lag! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyde+ Posted January 5, 2009 Author Share Posted January 5, 2009 And what's the deal with not making guide HD optimized? Since we have wide screen TV, they can just allow guide to show more information taking advantage of the high res, but no, it just uses the center of the screen with black bars. Hey I just noticed, all posts above show the screen shot from a thursday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Troll Subscriber¹ Posted January 7, 2009 Subscriber¹ Share Posted January 7, 2009 I hate my SA8300HDC, Time Warner, their channel line up, their Internet service, their customer service, their pricing... everything. Problem is, my only other alternative is dish and I have to pay my apartment complex out to the nose for the ability to mount one because they have a contract with Time Warner. My contract is up this month but I'm going to be forced to sign a new one if I don't come up with a better alternative. I know this is going back a bit, but it is illegal, according to FCC laws for the apartment complex to stop you from mounting a dish. There are some intricacies to the exact wording but from my limited time in an apartment, I researched it as they told us we were not allowed to get any provider besides Comcast because they had an exclusive contract. Here's a bit more info: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed rules in 1996 regarding the installation of satellite dishes for residents of apartments, condos, town homes or covenant-controlled communities managed by a Homeowners Association.The FCC ruled that a resident has the right to have a satellite dish that is less than one meter (39.37 inches) in diameter. The dish may be installed within the renter's or owner's exclusive area, such as inside a balcony, yard or patio. However, the landlord or the Homeowners Association can enforce restrictions on common areas, such as the exterior of the building or the roof. The FCC ruling also covers unreasonable installation or maintenance costs as well as unreasonable delays in dish installation, maintenance or use. This means that a landlord or Homeowners Association cannot ask you to pay unreasonable extra costs or create undue delays for you to use or install a satellite dish, nor can they prevent you from installing a dish within the guidelines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyde+ Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 Damn Co-Ops.. On my last apartment (I owned a co-op, it is like condo and only available in NYC) they said they do not allow dish on the roof, yes they can stop you saying you can damage the roof, so anyway, they could get us a hefty discount from TWC, about $15 a month on BULK rate. I am sure they may have gotten 1 or 2 free out of it maybe for the super, but anyway it was a good deal, It hit me bad, paying $77.73 after I moved (I am paying that now!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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