Need recommendation for digital cable tuner

Today I made a mistake; I bought a digital tuner which I thought carried digital cable. As I was setting the tuner up the instructions clearly stated that I could not get cable signals through my cable connection, only over the air. I live in the country so this is absolutely worthless to me.

I'm sure when I was looking to purchase my tuner that I read digital "over the air" but it did not hit home that this meant digital channels only were available with the included antenae.

I went through the motions of installing the Hauppauge 950. A screen in Windows Media Center listed the cable signals available, including our provider's digital service. I selected this service and was dissapointed that it rejected it because it was digital. Surprizingly enough the analog service showed up as well. I thought analog signals were not even used anymore. When the channel listing updated I viewed the resulting channels. I was very disappointed in the analog quality. The reception was very fuzzy, one channel just had a rolling image like TV in the old days.

I am 95 percent sure that I will need to return this tuner.

My question here is; could you recommend a digital tuner that pulls in the digital cable signal from the cable itself? I also would like to use the Windows Media Center software instead of other propreitary software.

I've done a lengthy search and really haven't positively identified a card that does what I need.

I need a digital cable tuner that pulls in the signal directly from the cable and not from an attached antenae. Could someone give me a recommendation?

Alternately; Could someone help me figure out what naming designations I would need to search for to find a true digital cable tuner (through the cable) for my PC? I find this very hard to search.

I've discovered through another thread that there really are only 2 seperate options and they both have drawbacks.
1) Recording and copying it all from Hauppauge PVR: The problems appear to be buggyness and it doesn't have a direct connect with Windows 7 Media Center.
2) Recording and copying what clears the digital rights with ATI TV Wonder, and hoping the Cable Card that I'll need to see if I can get works with my PC, and then pay a monthly fee for the service.

All I want to copy for watching later would be on the basic digital channels. I wish there was a simpler and more straight forward solution.

Immped said:

I've discovered through another thread that there really are only 2 seperate options and they both have drawbacks.
1) Recording and copying it all from Hauppauge PVR: The problems appear to be buggyness and it doesn't have a direct connect with Windows 7 Media Center.
2) Recording and copying what clears the digital rights with ATI TV Wonder, and hoping the Cable Card that I'll need to see if I can get works with my PC, and then pay a monthly fee for the service.

All I want to copy for watching later would be on the basic digital channels. I wish there was a simpler and more straight forward solution.

I know that you want digital, but I have a WinTV analog tuner and it seems pretty clear. I've only been watching it for about 5minutes (so i haven't played around with it much) and it looks amazing compared to my tube tv.

I know that you want digital, but I have a WinTV analog tuner and it seems pretty clear. I've only been watching it for about 5minutes (so i haven't played around with it much) and it looks amazing compared to my tube tv.[/QUOTE]

That is good that the analog option works good for you. With the Samsung HDTV that I have I am noticing that inferior signals show up much worse than the Sony CRT style TV that I used to own. I'm not sure if that is why my analog through the tuner looks so raunchy or if there is another reason.

The other question that pops in my mind is how long the analog signal will be a viable option. I thought everything transistioned to digital, I was frankly surprised that analog was even available.

I am going to wait things out until I know a little more about whether the ATI TV Wonder option will work for me. Microsoft will be releasing a compatibility test soon, and I'd also like to find out whether I will be able to record off stations such as SyFy.

or you could look into a hybrid with analog and digital. i just found out on mine that MC needs to be open and set to the channel i want to record. If you had two tuners onthe same card, you could record one show and watch another.

I did just discover a problem with mine tho. I tried to install a wireless card and MC wont recognize my tuner but it's still in device manager lol.

Good luck with w/e you end up doing

I'm not sure but I'm thinking the set top box would have a different tuner than the tuner that I would purchase so that would allow watching on one channel (over the TV input) and recording on another.

My need to record 2 shows at once would be limited.

I have read encouraging and marginally encouraging news about the channel listing's allowed with copy freely which is used in conjunction with Windows Media Center and cable card devices such as ATI TV Wonder digital cable. From one internet provider it sounds as if almost everything can be copied through copy freely. Another cable provider is only allowing copy once for most of their channel lineup. If I could copy freely under just the basic lineup then I'd be all set. I'm not clear whether copy once would allow me to copy from my PC and play on the TV.

for Vista and W7, I suggest one of Hauppauge's MCE TV Tuners:

Hauppauge Computer Works : WinTV for Media Center

which includes the Vista/W7 remote and IR Receiver

I also suggest you carefully review the system requirements.

Swanson Photos said:

for Vista and W7, I suggest one of Hauppauge's MCE TV Tuners:

Hauppauge Computer Works : WinTV for Media Center

which includes the Vista/W7 remote and IR Receiver

I also suggest you carefully review the system requirements.

Am I correct that at least the 2250 does bring in digital cable through the set box? If so can you watch and record the majority of the digital cable channels?

I do read that the clear QAM channels are not supported through Media Center.

What are the top selling points for you on these MCE type TV tuners?

I have a Comcast HD STB, have the FULL package - all channels, and can play and record them all...you need to have the right hardware...believe it or not, you will find specific info on this here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...r/default.aspx