Multiple Tuners, Digital Cable

[RRR]

Hi,

Forgive the naive question, I've done many searches but I'm having trouble finding the definitive answer. I think I may have found it elsewhere, but perhaps someone could elaborate on the setup I'd like to go for...

I will be moving into a place with digital cable. I know I will have one set-top-box. What is the best way to hook up this one set-top-box to my HTPC featuring two (and perhaps soon, three) PVR150's?

Currently I don't have digital cable and of course hooking up multiple tuners is as simple as splitting the cable source. Is it that simple with digital cable?

I do realize I will have to use an IR blaster with digital cable.

Thanks in advance, I truly appreciate the help!

[ToxMox]

You seem to know most of what you need to know. Basically the 1 box will connect to just one of your PVR150s while being controlled by an IR blaster and the other 150 will just have Analog cable and you will set up each tuner with a different lineup (one digital cable and the other normal analog) unless you get multiple boxes then things change.

[RRR]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

You seem to know most of what you need to know. Basically the 1 box will connect to just one of your PVR150s while being controlled by an IR blaster and the other 150 will just have Analog cable and you will set up each tuner with a different lineup (one digital cable and the other normal analog) unless you get multiple boxes then things change.

Is that to say that Digital Cable, without the set-top-box, outputs analog cable? If so, I take it I can splice the analog cable signal into 1-2 more capture cards if I wanted to?

Also, because the lineups change, what does the TV Listing Guide then look like (generally speaking), how does it display the two different lineups?

Thanks for your help!

[ToxMox]

Yes you can split the analog signal into multiple cards. The guide shows all the channels combined from both lineups (a union if you will from those good old ven diagrams from math class). So if you have Channel 2 WCBS on both lineups you'll see just one Channel 2 WCBS in the guide.

[mikejaner]

Also note, that Digital Cable has more channels, so you will not get all the channels on analog cable as you will with digital.

[Stobor]

Originally Posted by RRR

Is that to say that Digital Cable, without the set-top-box, outputs analog cable? If so, I take it I can splice the analog cable signal into 1-2 more capture cards if I wanted to?

All the providers I've ever heard of still broadcast channels 1-125 analog. So using a splitter and a straight input will give you those channels which are typically called "extended basic cable".

Originally Posted by RRR

Also, because the lineups change, what does the TV Listing Guide then look like (generally speaking), how does it display the two different lineups?

Thanks for your help!

As toxmox stated all channels you can possible get will be displayed. When you set up your sources the tuner using the STB will be set for your providers "digital cable" the others will be set for the "extended basic cable". One suggestion I'd make is setting the encoder merit of the tuners using the extended basic cable to 1 and leaving the tuner using the STB to zero. I prefer to set it up this way in case one of the high (125+) channels has something I'd like to see the one tuner that can actually get that channel is seldom in use.

[RRR]

Thanks for the information, it helps me immensely.

Let me take it one step further. If I wanted Digital Cable on all of the capture cards in my SageTV HTPC, what would that entail - multiple set-top-boxes? How does one control each capture card and set-top-box in that case? Or can the single set-top-box configuration be split somehow?

Again, I know this may have been covered before but I haven't been able to pinpoint answers through searches thus far.

Thanks so much.

[mikejaner]

Yes, multiple set top boxes.
In this case, you have one of two options, depending on the hardware.

Every box can be controlled via IR. You would need to buy something like the USBUIRT which can control up to 3 boxes. I have one and it works very well.

Second, you can control some boxes with a "Low speed data port", aka, "Serial Port" on the back using a serial cable. Those boxes are more rare, and usually found in satellite recievers, but you may be lucky.