new pc with tv card.but what do i do........help!

[ukcuemaster]

hi guys wonder if any1 has any experience with telewest digital in the uk?

i have just bought a new pc (advent T8 ) which has a medion SAA7134 hybrid capture device.
The processors are 2 x 2.8 pentium R's (new dual pipe thing) with a radeon x700 pro graphics card and 2x200gb hard drives and windows media centre.(hope thats all the specs u need? if not please ask).

when trying to connect the pc to telewest digital i run into a couple of problems!!!

1) intemittent IR hardware not detected!
2) failure to get the IR harware to change channel on my telewest box and therefore complete the tuning stage of media centre.
3) very nice picture tuned in but no sound.

my sound card is a C media high definition audio device.

as i said advent support (which is of course pc world as advent is their brand) arent very helpful/knowledgable but they tell me that connecting to telewest (digital) shouldnt be a problem!!!!

I am trying to connect via the back of my digital set top box (the video scart as i no longer own a video) and connect to the pc with a scart to video in thing see photo attached!!!

i am not the most knowledgeable on pc's so if somebody can help could they please speak to me as though i havent got a clue what they are talking about because i probably wont.lol

many thanks.

[ukcuemaster]

if nobody has experience with telewest then maybe the same problems occur with other set top digital boxes?

i would try any ideas people have as i am stumped....lol

many thanks.

[Krispy Kritter]

A quick google search shows that quite a few people are having problems with that hardware.

Try looking here: http://www.adslweb.co.uk/medion/

[ukcuemaster]

thx for that link kritter!

yes i have googled this 1 to death.lol

unfortunately still cant resolve the problems.

i am also in touch with microsoft telewest medion and hauppage (as i have a usb 2 tv card that wont connect to telewest either).

just to update the situation (so people know and can advise me further if possible).

there does seem to be a compatability problem with digital set top boxes of most types but with telewest in particular!!!

the manufacturers have advised me to join and contact forums and self help groups and also check out computer fairs as they have heard of people connecting up with home made fixes but do not yet have a generic fix themselves!!

in fact they even asked me to let them know how i have resolved the problem if i ever manage to solve it...lol

so much for manufacturers heh! they make all this fancy hardware and leave it to the customers to figure out how it works ( as usual.lol)

so if anybody has managed to connect windows media centre to any make of digital set top box or a usb card to a digital set top box

please let me know how you did it because if it doesnt work for me it may point me in a direction that helps!!

thx for response so far

still hoping for assistance!!!!

[Nelson37]

You say you have good picture, is this on the PC? If so, then you are 90% there.

The IR hardware is almost certainly the remote control. Minor problem.

You should be using a composite or S-video out cable from the box, the idea is to eliminate the tuner on the card, which is a source of noise. Also won't decode premium channels.

Typically you will have seperate audio and video cables going to the PC. The audio either goes to the line-in on the sound card or to the capture card with a jumper to the sound card. Then you tell the software what type of connections you are using, sometimes setting the windows recording level and/or mute.