General Newbie crap....

[SCIFI 3D zoo]

It seems the more I dig and find out.. the more questions there are.

Hey now... look at me now... watch out... The Icons are kool here.

First question is... what tuner to get and what EPG software. Even though Sage is pushing those new Plextor tuners now I think I'm happy with a Hauppage. EPG... Sage and BTV are the best. So after doing a lot of research to come to this conclusion I know start figuring out how it actually works. And that has turned into an even bigger research project.

What do I want to do? Record tv, I usually buy movies, but I mostly want to record A&E, Time/Discovery, History, etc. I think the highest out of those is channel 111. But it would be nice to record what I want.

What I have figured out so far... two choices. Hook up the pc tuner to the coaxial cable and get "basic cable" which I don't know yet if that means... 2-99 or up to 125 since the tuner goes that high?? IF it's only 99 then I have cut out 111 and possibly others. Plus you can't chnage the channel. CHOICE #2: buy another cable box, so I can still watch what I want on the other one while the pc records something else. That opens up a bunch of other questions... can I buy a 3rd party cable box, how will it work with scrambling/ppv/etc., which one do I get and where do I get it??

Also if I go with Choice #2 I have to go with a IR device to control the cable box. So I have to do all of this research on this too.

I guess another choice is to just buy one of these standalone devices that has TIVO and a DVD-R in it. Because I don't want to just record stuff.. or try and use my pc as a tv... but I want to make some dvd's out of these recordings. Maybe there's some other questions I haven't thought of yet you guys can help me with too.

After reading about the setup problems I think there's another choice... CHOICE #3 .... TIVO. You can get one pretty cheap.. but I want to record DVD's. There are TIVO/DVD-R devices but they are in the $1000 range. Maybe there are TIVO's that have OUTPUT and you can bring that into your PC somehow to burn it to DVD?

[Opus4]

Regarding what channels you can get by directly connecting the cable coax to the tuner w/o a converter box... simply hook up your cable directly to your TV and see what channels you can receive.

- Andy

[SCIFI 3D zoo]

Well... that also depends on the tuner in the tv. Some really old ones may go up to 50... a lot are 99 too. So if you're not sure what the tv will do that may not be a good way to test it. And I'd hate to ask the cable company this but I probably should.

I've been surfing around and I'm now seeing TIVO's with DVD-R's in them and 140 Hour recorders for $299. Hmm..... I think I've narrowed it down to this or just going basic cable with a Hauppauge. So now the real question is... can the pc tuner and/or TIVO record movie channels. I read a TIVO will record PPV after you purchase it. I'm not really interested in recording movies but I am curious if there is any encryption keeping Hauppauge or TIVO from recording movie channels. IF neither can do it then why try to record anything over channel 125 anyway?

[kny3twalker]

you can record anything with the pvr 250
I record PPV and movie channels when they have those free weekends things
Since I have not had HBO, Movie Channel, and Starz since way before SageTV

and this is from DirecTV
I also record from analogue "basic" cable for my locals