Digital cable with ATI All-in-Wonder 9600?

[microkim]

Hi all! I had a Pinnacle PCTV which went pffffffft after 6 months, so now I'm thinking of replacing it with an ATI All-in-Wonder 9600. ($50 rebate at Circuit City this week, whee!)

I have digital cable, and I couldn't get the Pinnacle to tune all of my channels ... only about 15 of them (the ones listed on the cable company's website as "analog".) It was more or less useless, because shows that I wanted to capture using the Pinnacle were on the channels that I couldn't tune. Is there a way to tune all of the channels? Or will the ATI AIW only tune the same few? A friend mentioned an IR blaster, but I can't find much information on that and I'm not even sure what it is. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

P.S. -- IMO, the PCTV was a total waste of $200, if anybody's looking to buy one, I wouldn't.

[lordsmurf]

No. You need a digital cable tuner, or you need to output the cable receiver to the card.

[Tbear]

You won't be able to get the digital channels without a converter box. only analog channels with any capture card.

[microkim]

Thanks for the help so far! Is there a way to output the cable receiver to the card, lordsmurf? Is that what an IR blaster does? I apologize for being so stupid. Thanks again.

[c_hernandez32]

The only way is to hook up the cable box's s-video/composite and LR audio output to the AV input on your capture card. If your cable box doesn't have that and you have a built in tuner in your PC/capture card, just hook it up like you would on a normal TV. Tune the capture card to channel 3 or 4 and then change channels with the cable box's remote. So your watching HBO on channel 3. But use the s-video/composite output as it will provide better picture quality. What are the outputs on the cable box?

[microkim]

c_hernandez, here's the back of my cable box:

Cable IN
RF IN
To RF IN

Aux Audio IN (red & white)
Audio OUT (red/L & white/R) & Video (yellow)

The S-Video output is covered up, and so is something called SPDIF. There's also a connection for "DATA" and another that says "IR", and a slot that says "TV Pass Card". And the power cords, of course. Whoa, this thing is dusty!

Also, the ATI All-in-Wonder card does have a tuner.

Thanks everybody!

[c_hernandez32]

Well you could try to open the s-video output. It might just have been covered because the cable guy was lazy or didn't see on your TV set. The SPDIF is your optical out. It provides Dolby Digital sound, but you can't capture DD anyway (I think). If you can't reveal the s-video plug then hook up the cable box like you do to your TV, but on the AIW tuner. Call your cable company to see if they can't get you a better box with s-video and optical out for future use. Its usually free to get a better box.