Help getting HDTV to my PC

[Rivet]

I'm a newbie at this, so please be patient with me.  I'm trying to view local over-the-air HDTV on my computer (a Dell Dimension 4500 running XP Home) monitor (a 19 inch Dell LCD).  I've examined several possible methods to achieve this end:

  1.  Use a PC HDTV tuner card to view the over-the-air local channels.  
Problem: Poor or non-existant UHF signal at my location.  I live in Franklin, only 15.8 miles from most of the antennas, but seem to be in the RF shadow of hill.  Attempts to view the local NTSC UHF channels using an amped indoor antenna have been unsuccessful.  ( I live in a condo and am prohibited from placing an external antenna on my roof.)

  2. Use the new FusionHDTV III QAM card and get the over-the-air stations from Time Warner Cable (TWC).
Problems:  The new QAM card can only demodulate unencrypted digital signals.  It seems that it is the policy of Time Warner to encrypt all digital channels, even the local over-the-air stations.  (There is a single exception to this I understand, but it doesn't help much.)  While this policy may be modified in the future, is not likely to be changed soon enough for my viewing pleasure.

  3.  Use one of TWCs HDTV set-top-boxes (STBs) having a DVI output and run that output directly to my monitor.
Problem:  Though my monitor accepts DVI input, it is not the same type of DVI connection used by the STB.  Though it may be possible to use some sort of adapter, the manual for the STB states specifically that the DVI output of the STB cannot be viewed on a computer monitor.  It seems the connected device must return signals indicating that it encorporates certain copy protection schemes before the STB will send the ATSC signal.

  4.  Use one of TWCs HDTV STBs and run the componet output to my computer.
Problems:  I have no RGB or YPbPr inputs on my computer and do not know of an easy method to allow this type of input.

  5.  Use one of TWCs HDTB STBs having a firewire output and run that output to the firewire input on my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum card.
Problem:  This is where I am at.  I have an STB with firewire out connected to the firewire input on my computer.  The STB also has a digital audio out connection which I have connected to the SPDIF in connection on my audio card.  The computer recognizes that a new piece of hardware has been connected and attempts to load the appropriate drivers, but I have no idea which drivers I need.  Does anybody have ideas?  Once I have the appropriate drivers, how do I view the video signal? Is some video capture software all that I need?  

I'm naive enough to think this just might work.  Am I on the right track, or am I just tilting at windmills?  

Any help with this project would be much appreciated.  Sorry for the long post.:confused:

[borghe]

I stumbled across theis post and see that no one has helped on it.. let me see if I can offer some assistance..

3. You are correct. The monitor will generally have to support HDCP to work with STBs. Home video equipment generally has a DVI-I connector, computer equipment usually has a DVI-D connector. DVI-I pretty much only has a few approved resolutions (all ATSC approved) and supports HDCP, DVI-D has virtually unlimited resolutions and does not have to support HDCP. In connecting a DVI-I device to a DVI-D display, sometimes it will work, other times it will fail from lack of HDCP. DVI-D devices to a DVI-I display will almost always fail unless you can generate the specific resolution and frequency the monitor is looking for.

4. I "believe" (not positive though) the the high-end Radeon All-In-Wonder cards have component input. Look at the 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder..

5. I am assuming the device it is asking for is the firewire connected device (aka cable box). First though, remember you will have to convert at the box all Dolby Digital signals down to PCM audio. The SPDIF on the sound card cannot accept or record a Dolby Digital signal. As for how to record on your box, take a look at this thread at AVS. It is possible, but easy certainly isn't how I would describe it.

Hope this helps.

[Rivet]

Well, I finally found a solution...  umm, sort of.  

I noticed a something while attempting various possible connections (from the TWC converter to my computer):  while the DVI connections on both my monitor and computer are DVI-D, the cable supplied by Dell (with the monitor) was actually a DVI-I cable.  While the manual for the Pioneer converter specifically states that the DVI connection to a computer monitor will not work (due to HDCP, I presume), the manual for the Scientific Atlanta 3250HD makes no such assertion.  

This led me to attempt to connect the TWC converter directly to my LCD monitor (1280x1024 native).   And it worked!:D  Sort of...
My display would take the 16x9 format and display it as 4x3 (streched vertically and squeezed horizontally).  The overall viewing experience, while not unviewable, was not entirely pleasing.

I then discoverd that, by pressing the "Bypass" button on the remote, I could change the aspect ratio of the output from the converter.  But is seems that, while the composit and S-Video output change (I can monitor these using my ATI All-In-Wonder video card) in the desired fashion (letter-boxing the HD signal on my monitor) the DVI output did not respond in the same manner.  But I discovered that I could view the center portion of the 16x9 signal on my monitor with no distortion (using the "TV Type: Standard(4x3)" and "Setting: Squeeze 16x9" settings)!  :cool:

One problem with this set up is that, when using the DVI direct to my monitor, standard 4x3 video always appears distorted (with sidebars).  But I can just switch to the S-Video output to view these signals.

My monitor has both DVI and VGA jacks, allowing me to leave the DVI jack connected to the converter and the VGA jack to connected to my computers video card.  Since my monitor has a switch on the front to select which input (DVI or VGA) to use, I can live with this solultion.

borghe, thanks for the reply.  One more question.  In your reply you stated:  "The SPDIF on the sound card cannot accept or record a Dolby Digital signal.  First though, remember you will have to convert at the box all Dolby Digital signals down to PCM audio. The SPDIF on the sound card cannot accept or record a Dolby Digital signal."  

I'm currently using the stereo output of the converter for sound.  But the stereo out is not 5.1.  Is the digital audio out from the converter compatible with the SPDIF input on my audio card?  Or will I have to use the optical out from the converter to the optical SPDIF in on my audio card?  My sound card is an Audigy2 ZS Platinum supporting DVD Audio, EAX, DTS ES, and Dolby Digital EX decoding for 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 speaker systems.

Thanks again for the reply.

[tazman]

This led me to attempt to connect the TWC converter directly to my LCD monitor (1280x1024 native). And it worked! Sort of...

Just a little tid bit of reasurance on what your experiencing from something kinda similar that I have tried.
  On my setup I have an Nvidia Ge-Force 4 ti 4200 dual head vga card in my computer along with the Hauppauge WinTV-HD card.  I wanted a way to be able to view 2 desktops at 2 different resolutions.  One on my 60" Sony at 1280x720 and the other at 1024x768 on a computer monitor.  It worked great when I was using a conventional analog monitor for the 1024x768 and the analog worked good for displaying 1280x720 or any of the HDTV wide screen resolutions.  Then I decided to get a LCD computer monitor to replace the bulky analog one.  I found that, at least with LCD monitor that I bought, it would not sync properly to the wide screen format resolutions properly.  It would only display them stretched verticaly like what you described and even with using PowerStrip I could not correct it.  Going back to the analog monitor there was no problem.  The point I'm trying to make at least is that in my case, the LCD monitor seems limited in that it does not support a wide range of resolutions as does an analog monitor.

Keep tinkering and keep us informed.  That's how we all learn.  It's good to here from people who have more patience for experimenting than I do.