any idea who will offer ATI digital cable tuner?

[cadillackid]

I was just wondering if there has been any of the major manufacturers jump on board yet to offer the new ATI digital cable wonder with cablecard support?

I had read that it was to begin shipping with "certified" PC's in january of 2007, but as of yet I have not seen anyone advertising it.

my current HTPC is an old sempron 2400 and so is about to be retired and im in the market for a new one, however id like to wait until i can get something with a real digital cable tuner in it..

im kind of Lost because my roomate bought a westinghouse 27" LCD TV and he can get all the digital and High def channels via unencrypted QAM.. (we dont subsribe to any premiums) yet with my fusion HDTV 5 gold board in my HTPC I get almost no digital channels whatsoever using that Fusion card...

im assuming since my roomate gets all the digital channels on his LCD TV (NO cablecard in use) that they are unencrypted so I should be able to get them too with my HTPC.
-Christopher

 

[dublin00]

I was just wondering if there has been any of the major manufacturers jump on board yet to offer the new ATI digital cable wonder with cablecard support?

I had read that it was to begin shipping with "certified" PC's in january of 2007, but as of yet I have not seen anyone advertising it.

-Christopher

These new "certified" PCs are pretty much required to run Vista, which was just released on Monday, so you should start to see them soon.

One thing to keep in mind, these digital cable cards are all CableCard V1.0 compliant and lack 2-way communication support. Right now that is ok, but in the last two weeks Comcast and TimeWarner have stated that they plan to roll out SDV "Switched Digital Video" in the next 2 years. In a switched digital video system TV channels are not broadcast but "streamed" on request using a virtual channel mapping that changes everytime someone in your nieghborhood changes to a different TV channel. SDV deployment by the cable companys would make these new cards useless.

 

[jlehnert]

TV channels are not broadcast but "streamed" on request

Sounds like a move designed to force everyone to go back to renting cable boxes.

 

[dublin00]

TV channels are not broadcast but "streamed" on request

Sounds like a move designed to force everyone to go back to renting cable boxes.

Exactly. There is already a fire-storm in the online TIVO community and others over this announcement since it would make all third part CableCard compliant devices non-functional including TV QAM tuners, the S3 TIVO, etc.... Supposedly at least TIVO, Inc. has filed a complaint with the FCC over this since it violates the previous CableCard mandate from the FCC. Who knows what will happen, but it is good to be informed.

 

[cadillackid]

so then maybe I should take this a different direction. my cable box of course has component video output on it which is how I get to my projector. im just trying to elminate the little video switchbox I have that I have to use to switch between the STB and the HTPC. its IR signals happen to be the same as some of my audio equipment.. so when i want to switch from the PC to the STB I hit the button on the video switchbox which in turns also turns my receiver to FM radio... so then I have to then switch my receiver back to Video 3. my Onkyo A/V receiver handles high def TV signals, but cannot habdle the signals my PC generates so im out of luck using it as the switcher.. does anyone make a card that accepts component video so that I could watch HDTV on my PC and keep the STB?

-Christopher

 

[CollinR]

Not cost effective.


You need to ditch component video if at all posible, most STBs scale down to 480p over component. HDCP HDMI is what you will be forced into before long. I still like my old RGB everyonce in a while though.

 

[cadillackid]

im not up on what HDCP HDMI is really.. but would this really affect me as I never record anything from the TV.. I only want to be able to watch it all on my Big projector... preferrably through my HTPC as I dont like the video switcher that is a mess to deal with.. unless someone makes a home theatre A/V receiver that can handle the computer signals..

my cable box does in fact from what i can see send out REAL high def resolutions.. at least according to my projector it does.. the component video output looks vewry good and when I query the projector it tells me if I am watching a 480i (regular TV), a 720p or a 1080i signal depending on which channel I tune with the cable box.. is this still being downconverted or is it truly sending these signals out since the projector tells me thats the signal it gets...

so what is my best solution here? what do others do that use projectors without tuners and want to be able to watch Hi def on them? OTA is not an option as i am NOT putting up a tower and I live too far away to get a good picture on high-def and besides I cant get ESPN-HD OTA.

I have NO NEED to record anything, just watch it..

-Christopher

 

[CollinR]

im not up on what HDCP HDMI is really.. but would this really affect me as I never record anything from the TV.. I only want to be able to watch it all on my Big projector... preferrably through my HTPC as I dont like the video switcher that is a mess to deal with.. unless someone makes a home theatre A/V receiver that can handle the computer signals..

my cable box does in fact from what i can see send out REAL high def resolutions.. at least according to my projector it does.. the component video output looks vewry good and when I query the projector it tells me if I am watching a 480i (regular TV), a 720p or a 1080i signal depending on which channel I tune with the cable box.. is this still being downconverted or is it truly sending these signals out since the projector tells me thats the signal it gets...

so what is my best solution here? what do others do that use projectors without tuners and want to be able to watch Hi def on them? OTA is not an option as i am NOT putting up a tower and I live too far away to get a good picture on high-def and besides I cant get ESPN-HD OTA.

I have NO NEED to record anything, just watch it..

-Christopher

HDCP = High Defintion Copy Protection.

HDMI is the connector / cable style. It's a digital connection capable of carrying HDCP data, digital audio and high definition digital video. DVI (DVI-I and DVI-D specifically) are also HDCP compliant cabling.

Some day in the future your service provider will probably flash your STB with an update that limits the component video it outputs. Your projector probably isn't lying, just no promises of it staying that way for very long in the future.

You can buy HDCP video cards, not real cheap yet but dropping.

Now isn't a really good time to be investing in video equipment.

Might look at the DVDo stuff, it's and HDCP compliant switch with scaler.

http://www.dvdo.com/pro/pro_ishd.php