[mythtv-users] TV Tuner for mom's computer

[Mark J. Small]

On November 8, 2012, Mark J. Small wrote:
> On November 8, 2012, Marc Paré wrote:
> >  Le 2012-11-08 15:38, Marc Paré a écrit :
> >  My mother is moving to a retirement home and I am driving up to help out
> > 
> > re-connecting all tech stuff. She recently got a notice that her Cable
> > service will go all HD by end of November, so her analog PCI TV card will
> > stop working. She is 78 yrs old, likes to watch TV and play solitaire at
> > the same time on her 24in LCD monitor. Location: Sudbury Ontario.
> > 
> >  What card would you suggest for her system? I can't remember her mobo
> > 
> > maker, but what I do know is that
> > 
> >  * there are 2 PCI slots NO PCIe SLOTS
> >  * RAM is 2 gig
> >  * hardrive is 250gigs
> >  * she has an NVidia video card -- can't remember the model, but nothing
> > 
> > fancy
> > 
> >  I was looking at this card:
> > http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=44_563&item_id=Q782
> > 4 4
> > 
> >  It looks like PCI cards are definitely getting harder to find! Are there
> > 
> > external USB cards that would work? She will be hooking up through a
> > cable set-top box.
> > 
> >  Cheers,
> >  
> >  Marc
> >  
> >  
> >  I forgot to mention that she is running Mageia2 Linux.
> >  
> >  Cheers,
> >  
> >  Marc
> 
> Is her cable company going all digital or all HD?  If it is just digital
> and she's not doing the HD thing, then I'd reuse the existing card and get
> a decent IR blaster to go along with it.
> 
> My cable company went all digital a few years back. I'm running three
> analog tuners with three Standard Def cable boxes and IR Blasters to
> control each ofthem.
> 
> Since she is Sudbury, she is probably on Eastlink.  I know that they charge
> extra for HD signals.  If she isn't going to pay for HD, then find out if
> her cable box has composite or coax outputs.  These will feed in to your
> old analog card happily.  Check the wiki for IR blaster use.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> Mark



As a follow up, she'll probably get a DCX700.  Have a look at the outputs 
here:

http://myeastlink.ca/CustomerSupport/TV/EquipmentCables/DigitalReceivers.aspx

You can use coax or composite for standard def with your existing tuner.   
Composite is better.   All you need is an IR blaster (which you would need 
anyway with a new card).


Mark