Welcome to the Hardware Support Forum

[Narflex]

Welcome to the Hardware Support Forum on the Frey Technologies forums.

This forum is for discussions related to using various hardware setups with Frey Technologies products. Anything relating to capture cards, infrared receivers/transmitters, system compatibility or other hardware related problems or suggestions should be posted here.

Thanks for your interest,

[gadzooki]

Hello, and thank you to anyone who takes time to answer this absolute "Newbie". I am very interested in recording live TV on my computer and I have been reading about it online all day. Unfortunately, I could not find a diagram anywhere showing a complete hook-up. I have DTV with an HD reciever. The computer I would like to use to record is in a seperate room altogether. My DTV dish has four outputs on it, so I can run another line from the dish to the computer. I imagine that I will need another box at the end of that line before I connect the dish to the computer. So, a couple of questions:

1. What controls the TV channels? Is it the box, or SageTV?

2. Most of the PCI Cards I have been reading about show that they are "181 channel cable ready". I get a lot more than 181 channels. Will I lose some?

3. My HD reciever is connected to my TV with the 3 High Definition colored connectors (sorry, don't know what they are called), which leaves the "out to TV" RF connecter available from the back of the HD reciever. Can I just run coax cable from there directly to my computer without using another box? Will I have to watch the same channel on my computer that I am watching on my TV?

4. Can you point me to a forum or a link that is for Newbies like myself if you don't feel like taking the time to explain all of this to a knucklehead? I really just want to record a few shows because I am sick of waiting for them to show up in the Newsgroups.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE to all who give me any info.

Scott

[dkardatzke]

Here's my take, others please add where they can who have a similar setup as Scott.

1. SageTV controls the channels on your box. The control can occur through the Actisys IR-200L (available for sale on our website) or by using a serial cable for some Satellite receivers.

2. You won't lose any channels because you won't actually be using the "Tuner" portion of the card they are referring to. You are going to connect your receiver through the S-video or Composite connection which bypasses the tuner.

3. Need someone else to fill in here, Mangriotis?

4. If you still have questions after others answer, we can walk through them.

We are here to help you, so feel free to ask.

Dan

[Mark Lamutt]

Originally posted by gadzooki
Hello, and thank you to anyone who takes time to answer this absolute "Newbie". I am very interested in recording live TV on my computer and I have been reading about it online all day. Unfortunately, I could not find a diagram anywhere showing a complete hook-up. I have DTV with an HD reciever. The computer I would like to use to record is in a seperate room altogether. My DTV dish has four outputs on it, so I can run another line from the dish to the computer. I imagine that I will need another box at the end of that line before I connect the dish to the computer. So, a couple of questions:

Hi gadzooki! We all have to start someplace, and you're in a pretty good place right now to do just that. Let's take a look at your questions.

1. What controls the TV channels? Is it the box, or SageTV?

Your directv receiver will tune to the channels. The receiver can be connected to your computer 2 different ways - either with an IR blaster (such as the actisys IR200-L) which will send IR codes to the receiver to change the channel, or via a serial interface connected to your computer which will cause the receiver to change channels.

2. Most of the PCI Cards I have been reading about show that they are "181 channel cable ready". I get a lot more than 181 channels. Will I lose some?

Nope, because you'll want to connect your receiver to the capture card with svideo (preferred) or composite (still better than RF coax cable) cable.

3. My HD reciever is connected to my TV with the 3 High Definition colored connectors (sorry, don't know what they are called), which leaves the "out to TV" RF connecter available from the back of the HD reciever. Can I just run coax cable from there directly to my computer without using another box? Will I have to watch the same channel on my computer that I am watching on my TV?

That's component cable (red, green and blue ends). You could run a coax cable directly to your computer, but I wouldn't recommend it. First, yes, you would have to watch the same channel on your computer as on your tv. Second, you can't run the IR blaster or serial control from another room - too much distance between the receiver and the computer. And third, svideo provides a much better picture than coax. You definitly want another receiver.

4. Can you point me to a forum or a link that is for Newbies like myself if you don't feel like taking the time to explain all of this to a knucklehead? I really just want to record a few shows because I am sick of waiting for them to show up in the Newsgroups.

We're a pretty good place here. Also, for satellite type questions, check out DBSTalk (where I'm also an administrator), and AVS Forums.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE to all who give me any info.

Scott

You're welcome.