I'd like to know more about Media Centers

[evile]

Im a total noob when it comes to media centers but id like to know more about it and i have some questions. I currently have brighthouse HD cable with a DVR box for my TV If i installed a TV tuner card would i still need the DVR box to get all my channels or would that be eliminated how does this work? My LCD TV is better than my computer monitor now if i had a tv card in the PC would i beable to switch to my big TV and use it for both TV and gaming again how does this work?

thanks in advance for any info provided

[Krispy Kritter]

Depends on what you are trying to watch. A basic tuner card will typically only receive/decode the basic analog channels. Most newer cards also have a QAM tuner, which will allow the reception of digital channels. Premium channels require the use of a tuner which will accept a cable card (not sure if there are any on the market) or an external cable box to descramble.

Depends on your TV. You will need a PC/VGA input or an available DVI/HDMI input on the TV and a second VGA/DVI output on your video card. You can then simply connect the PC to your TV.

[redwudz]

evile, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks,
Moderator redwudz

And welcome to our forums.

[jagabo]

QAM tuners on capture cards only tune unencrypted (aka clear) QAM. The only channels you are likely to find unecrypted are your local broadcast channels and a few others. Most of the digital channels on your cable system will be encrypted. So you will need to use your cable box to record most digital channels.

The only cablecard capture device I know is from ATI/AMD.

http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonderdigital/index.html

Most cable companies have no interest in helping you get it set up. "No interest" as in they will not perform their part of the job required to get the device working (registering the cablecard to work on their system).

[disturbed1]

If i installed a TV tuner card would i still need the DVR box to get all my channels or would that be eliminated how does this work?

Take the cable from the wall, and screw that into your television. Those are the analog channels your capture card would receive.

The big if is the digital (QAM) part of things. There is no solid answer to this. Things greatly depend on your local provider as far as what you would be able to receive. You should count on at least getting your local HD channels, and forget about any of the premium HD channels.

Your provider may, or may not also provide a digital feed of the lower channels across QAM. My provider does. I get all of the normal cable channels (TBS, TNT, USA ....) across clear QAM at 704x480 ~ 4mb/s with mono ac3. Generally speaking, their QAM broadcast of the cable channels is OK. Sometimes better than analog, sometimes worse.

My LCD TV is better than my computer monitor now if i had a tv card in the PC would i beable to switch to my big TV and use it for both TV and gaming again how does this work?

thanks in advance for any info provided

You would need TV out on your graphics card, or DVI/RGB in on your television.

IMO --- caution personal opinion below.
I have a MythTV setup. This constitutes a server with 2 dual tuner capture cards, that feed 4 front ends located through out the house, plus web streaming and control. It was a big gigantic pain in the ass to set up and get working. Once all the settings and kinks were worked out, the entire system is 98% flawless. It is fantastic, way more features than any STB DVR. The geek factor is huge. We still pay for 2 DVRs from our cable company.