Comcast and SageTV

[leers]

I am new to the sagetv community but I really want to build a PVR and use sagetv. I have comcast digital cable on my main TV and I would like to leave this tv alone. I want to build a PVR for my office to watch tv on my new monitor. Can I plug my cable directly into my cpu video card that I bought with the sagetv bundle? If so, what channels will I get? I realize that I will only get the analog channels, but I don't know what channels that this usually encompasses. I realize that HD, On demand and PPV wont work, but I dont care about this stuff. My other TV works fine for this. If I do plug the cable directly into the cpu, will the quality be half way decent? Are there better ways to do what I want to do? I would like to avoid getting another set-top-box for my office, but if this would work better...please let me know. Thanks for your help.
Leers

[ke6guj]

Can I plug my cable directly into my cpu video card that I bought with the sagetv bundle?

I'm assuming you meant Tuner Card that came in your bundle. IF so, you could plug in straight cable into it and get the analog channels. What channles you'll get will vary, but normally be the channels below 100.

With a good cable connection and tuner card, you should be able to get a good quality recording. You can adjust the settings on the recording quality to suit your needs.


You don't need to get an STB (set-top box) for the PVR, but you could if you want. If you did, you'd let Sage have access to all the digital channels. You won't get on-demand or PPV, but you should get your premium channels. Now as far as recording HD in HD, you'd have to have an HD STB connected via firewire. Otherwise, you could record the HD channels in SD via s-video or composite. You will need to configure something to change the channels on the STB, such as some sort of IR-blaster, serial cable, or firewire connection.

[leers]

Thank you very much for the information. If I did use a set top box....how would i hook it up to the computer tuner card? Also, you said that I should get a good tuner card. I was looking at this one. Would you recommend it?
http://store.sagetv.com/Merchant2/me...tegory_Code=SB

Thanks for the help.
Lee

[jbarr]

You would connect audio and video from the Set Top Box (STB) drectly to the capture card. For example, the Hauppauge PVR-150 has both composite and S-Video inputs. Then, depending on what STB you have, you "control" it using either an IR blaster or a serial cable going from the PC to the STB where SageTV then handles changing the channels on the STB.

I have two PVR-150's installed, and it works very well. One has "raw" analog cable where the PVR-150's tuner tunes the channel, and the other connects to a Motorola DCT-2000 STB via S-Video and uses a serial cable and a plugin to change the channels. It's very stable.

[leers]

Great!
I am going to order it today. I hope the analog signal is good enough. If not, I guess i will just break down and get another Motorola box from comcast.
Thanks a ton, Lee

[thomjw]

Hi Leers,
I use comcast cable and run it into a tv tuner card by hauppauge, it is a pvr-150. I use Sagetv. The quality is awesome using sage and hauppauge. You won't be disappointed. You will quickly get used to the sage features such as pausing live tv, skipping back if you missed what someone said on tv, recording, skipping thru commercials when watching recorded shows, setting favorite shows to automatically record, all kinds of neat things. It's hard to go back to watching regular tv once you start using sagetv!
-Tom