all-in-wonder tv cards and digital cable

[Jeffrey Helfter]

I see in the specs for the All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro that it receives 125 cable
channels. I currently have Comcast digital cable and there are more than
125 channels. Can you watch tv on your computer if the channel number is
higher than 125 (example ESPN News is channel 402) or is it just not
accessible. Also, is there much of a quality difference with a DVI
connection versus the standard 15 pin VGA?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[JD]

It would be up to 125 analog channels. My cable provider sends channels in
analog up to about station 50 but then the rest above that are all digital.
So you would need to have a tuner capable of getting digital OR you would
need a digital box connected to your tuner and just set the tuner to channel
3 or use the s-video in. I am not sure if a tv tuner exists yet that can do
digital? I would think it wouldn't take too long because it kinda sucks now
not being able to just sit at the computer and bring up every station like I
used to before digital. (I cannot just pretend the digital stations do not
exist hehe).

 

[-]

There are a few DVB-S, DVB-T cards that can do digital, I saw one from
germany and the result is way better than AIW cards can do, and they cost
much less than AIW9800 Pro cards as well.

Here in Sweden we have systems with decoder boxes for satellite and
terristial digital TV. There exists also card readers for PC systems as
well, then we are very close to a perfect TV world...

A decent graphics card, a Digital tuner card and a "digital subscription"
card reader (with subscription) and the real HTPC is very close. Enjoy!!!

/ J

 

[J. Clarke]

It would be up to 125 analog channels. My cable provider sends channels
in analog up to about station 50 but then the rest above that are all
digital. So you would need to have a tuner capable of getting digital OR
you would need a digital box connected to your tuner and just set the
tuner to channel
3 or use the s-video in. I am not sure if a tv tuner exists yet that can
do
digital? I would think it wouldn't take too long because it kinda sucks
now not being able to just sit at the computer and bring up every station
like I
used to before digital. (I cannot just pretend the digital stations do
not exist hehe).

There is a version of the Dvico Fusion HDTV board that can decode QAM,
allowing it to handle some digital cable. Go over to AVSforum and read up
on the results people are having with it before you buy though. The HDTV
Wonder hardware is apparently also able to do this but it is my
understanding that that feature is not yet supported in the software.