Full screen HD on my Comp Please!

[EdSilvia]

Its great that you guys know all this stuff and its greatly appreciated.

I'm in NJ and have Cable vision. You know we all need to get a cable box to watch TV on the computer now or any TV. But today when I hooked by new box up to my AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX the image on media player wasn't full screen. It now has a big boarder around it on the HD stations.

My question is can I do anything and buy something to get back to full screen HD on my wide monitors? Tks

Ed

MY comp
4 core AMD
Win 7 64
8GB

[johns0]

Depending on your video card there's a setting in the display properties where you can expand or shrink the display.

[sanlyn]

No. On all analog output the new HD Cablebivion boxes format the HD image inside a 4:3 letterbox via the composite and s-video outputs. Remember, composite and s-video acn't carry an HD image. Those outputs deliver a 4:3 image only.

To get a full screen image from a Cablevision box, you need either (a) the analog outputs of the older SD digital box, not the HD box. Or... (b) use a HD PVR like the Hauppauge via component output from the HD box. With the latter you get a full 16:9 image; if the broadcast is 4:3, you'll get a 4:3 image pillared in a 16:9 frame, but sometimes you'll get just a 4:3 image. Depends on the channel.

So, imagine what happens to that 16:9 component image if it comes out of composite or s-video. Component can carry HD 16:9, but the other analogs can't. That HD 16:9 gets letterboxed into a 4:3 image for composite and s-video. So you end up with letterbox and pillars inside a 4:3 frame if you're not using component output.

[johns0]

I just looked up the AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX and your right,it only puts out composite/s-video to a computer,though the connection was straight to the monitor,does the cable box have hdmi and your monitor have hdmi?

[sanlyn]

If your monitor has HDMI input, you can use the HDMI output from your HD box -- that is, if you have more than one HDMI output on the box. If you have an a/c receiver with multiple HDMI outs, you're home free. Of courtse you have to have an HDMI cable long enough to reach from your receiver to your PC, or bring the two closer together.

Welcome to Hiiiiigh Definition. Ain't it great?

[olyteddy]

To watch on a computer you can also get an HD tuner. I have a SiliconDust HDHomerun Prime on my network. It is three tuners in one and streams over my LAN to any connected PC. The Prime accepts a CableCard and can decrypt the Cable channels including the HiDef ones (I'm watching CSI NY in HiDef in a window as I type this). The FCC says the Cable provider must provide a CableCard for free or low cost. I pay $1.10 a month for the equivalent of three HD cable boxes with PVR capabilities. I save about $60 (the rental cost of 3 HD PVR boxes) a month. Not bad for a $130 purchase.

[EdSilvia]

Hey Tks everybody,

I need a bit to analyze all these options. Ideally I would like to just view my HD stations in a window on my second monitor in windows media player like I have been through the cable directly via the clear quam stations (mostly sports) Right now I'm just using the coax from the HD cable box into the AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX and I can see its small and not HD.

Would it be better if I returned the HD cable box for a standard def one? Do you think my AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX would output HD to media player then? If it did that would be the simplest solution.

Tks everybody again,
Ed

[sanlyn]

Would it be better if I returned the HD cable box for a standard def one? Do you think my AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX would output HD to media player then? If it did that would be the simplest solution.

You can't get HD output from an SD box. I don't know that CableVision still rents the old boxes. You'll have to ask them.

[Cauptain]

Its great that you guys know all this stuff and its greatly appreciated.

I'm in NJ and have Cable vision. You know we all need to get a cable box to watch TV on the computer now or any TV. But today when I hooked by new box up to my AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX the image on media player wasn't full screen. It now has a big boarder around it on the HD stations.

My question is can I do anything and buy something to get back to full screen HD on my wide monitors? Tks

Ed

Try AmarecTV. Its have a very nice profile input config.

for me i use 3 inputs (HDMI, COMPONENT and COMPOSITE) every config have combination.

You can crop 4:3 input and set FS or 16:9 no black borders.




Claudio

[EdSilvia]

Tks again,

I shopped around and I'm surprised how few and costly the solutions are. I found the SiliconDust HDHomerun Prime for around $169 and only one PCI card that takes the Cable card for $200 (Centon). I also found the Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 for $120. I guess they will be giving away a lot of clear Qam devices very soon.

Anyway for now I hooked the HDMI from the cable box to the monitor input while running the audio out to the line in on my PC's audio card.
Its a little funky adj the volume & video inputs each time. Now its full screen all the time, although I can switch back to the AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX when I want to. If I want to record PC stuff like a poker session AmarecTV looks pretty cool too.

Tks all
Ed