Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

Hello,

I recently bought a nice new TFT for my pc and well as its in my room I thought I could replace my 28in tv with the pc monitor instead.. now I have digi tv from NTL my box is a silver sammy job....

I was wondering what type of tv card do I need in the pc ? to take the output off the box ? will I have all my channels that I pay for ?

ultimatly I want to feed the ntl into my pc so I dont need to use my tv anymore...

can it be done ?


thanks :)

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

It can be done i'm sure, my guess would be SCART to Aeiral connector converter and stick that into a WinTV card. But i'm no expert.

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

Most decent TV Cards will have a Composite/Sound Input that you can take off of a scart adaptor

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

hi :welcome:

yes it can be done.

yes you get all the channels you pay for.

As for 'what type' of TV card, any 'normal' TV card will do, but not one designed for Freeview.

One like this with PVR function should work

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/produ...ta_pvr150.html

(not sure if the IR blaster works with the sammy, but it 'should')

Plenty of others to look at here

http://www.tv-cards.com/allcards.php

The main thing to be aware of is that the card will detect the feed from the STB as one 'channel', and changing which programme you watch will be done by the STB remote - unless there is a 'blaster' type remote function supplied, as with the card above - but they are not guaranteed to work with all NTL boxes.

You will be better getting a scart to composite or SVHS converter, rather than using the RF out from the stb, as you will get a better picture.

Another thing is that you will need to connect to 'line in' on you sound card - or to L/R phono connectors if the card has them.

I have an ATI TV card built in to my graphics card, I have VHS & STB connected to composite, external DVD connected to SVHS & via a bypass on the STB can get 'terrestrial' channels via RF - looks great on a 19" Widescreen LCD :)

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

Yeh but binlala has the digibox in the room so would suspect they want to be able to change channels/schedule channel recording from their PC.

If so it's tricky and you got a lot of hacking to do which might not be up your street....

DVB-C cards will read in the cable feed then you'll need to register your smartcard etc etc I've read about people trying to do this : I haven't done it myself though/

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

Yes, I have to say scheduling recording is something I don't bother with, so can't advise there, other than to say that some third party software, eg 'showshifter', will integrate with 'digiguide' to perform this function - the main hassle is changing the channel on the STB via the PC.

I've not heard about registering your smartcard with a DVB-C card, though, interesting ....

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

Yeh I was serious about doing this a few months back and found a supplier in the uk doing the dvb-c card plus dragon reader total cost around 150 but I got sidetracked into other pursuits.

Do a google for
dvb-c dragon

---------- Post added at 19:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:15 ----------

I use www.redrat.co.uk to change the channel via the USB IRDA dongle it works pretty good : Remember the signal is IRDA not infrared which is why its difficult to program a universal remote : redrat works ok dont know if there are any competitors to rr.

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

thanks for that google suggestion, it looks a bit complicated ;)

another possibility for IRDA remotes is

http://www.redremote.co.uk/

- however AFAIK the Samsung boxes are standard infra red, not IRDA

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

Correct afaik

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

My telewest box IRDA grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr what a pain

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

ok the whole idea was to feed the skart out into the pc and be able to watch it on my pc ?

the first steps would be to change the channel with the ntl remote... but I may move on to bigger ideas... right now I just want to feed it into the pc ??

im looking for the best card out there to do the job and not pay too much pennys for it :)


any tips ?

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

There are so many to choose from but one things for sure make sure you DONT get a USB one.

I'm not sure whats going to be the best bang for buck in your arena but videohelp can be a good source for help and reviews

www.videohelp.com

http://www.videohelp.com/capturecard...Top+User+Rated

---------- Post added at 16:30 ---------- Previous post was at 16:25 ----------

One cheap option would to use your graphics card if it's VIVO

ATI Radeon VIVO cards are pretty good the last time I checked.

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

if you have the standard IR box then i suppose you could use one of these cheap video senders and the samsung remote
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...%2Bsenders.htm
iv never got around to trying the IR send/receave bit with my samsung 2100c but it should work for a very basic setup.

as the for PCtv composite-input bit, just about any old £18 tv card with composite-in will work, its a good idea to get one with a BT878 chip(brooktree being common and supported by many 3rd party apps) then you can use Dscaler (no driver needed as the built-in one is optimised for best output).

Dscaler http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/downloads.htm
http://www.allcomputers.co.uk/prodcat.asp?CatID=11
dont know if this one has a Dscaler compatable chip but it has
S-video input so can be better quality.

Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP TV Card/Digital Video RecorderPCI

CodeTV-CARD-5Cost£17.00
http://www.allcomputers.co.uk/zoom_desc.asp?prodid=1640


if you want to go one better, but still not as good as direct access to the DVB-C feed, then theres always a card that has a real hardware Encoder onboard so that takes the composite-in feed internally and spits out Mpeg1/2/4ASP aka DivX/Xvid(not AVC/H.264)

pasted from one of my posts elswere:
it should be made clear that Mpeg4/ASP (aka part2/Divx/Xvid) is the far older codec , were as Mpeg4/AVC (aka part10/H.264) is the codec that will be used everywere, incuding my advocated 'personal DVB IPTV'.
keeping that older ASP in mind, perhaps this Yuan card might be usable (perhaps BBRV could get some and test for fully working and usablility), they too call it Mpeg4 were as its really the older ASP
http://www.yuan.com.tw/en/products/vdo_pg400.html#spec . http://www.yuan.com.tw/en/products/pop/images/pg400.jpg
all the current Yuan cards both pci and usb refer to just mpeg4 but are not AVC but ASP, i cant find a current price but perhaps if someone wants to test it they might report back here and find a good use for these things?.

"
Major Features:
Most advanced VWEB hardware MPEG4 encode engine
Real time Hardware MPEG4 compression in Full D1 resolution
Digital video recording in MPEG4, Divx ®, MPEG2 / DVD, and MPEG1/ VCD
Watch Live TV and Recoding TV program on PC
Ghost Reducer, 3D Y/C Separation, and Noise Reduction (optional)
Time shifting and scheduler recording
Features
PCI 2.1 MPEG4 Encoder card
Records DVD-quality video on PC (720x480-NTSC, 720x576-PAL)
Digital video recording, directly capture from video source (such as TV, VCR, DVD, Camcorder, etc.) into MPEG4, MPEG2, MPEG1, DVD, VCD, and Divx® file
Watch TV on PC (NTSC, PAL or SECAM TV system)
High quality TV tuner for hyper band cable and terrestrial antenna reception
Supports with TV Stereo/SAP sound (BTSC, EIAJ, NICAM, or A2)
Video capture from Composite and S Video input
Full motion display 30fps @720x480-NTSC and 25fps @720x576-PAL
Provides the daily/weekly reservation-recording schedule
Time-shifting function, simultaneously watch and record the TV program with immediate replay and pause
Equalizes the waveform of the video signals, and reduces ghost (Optional)
High precision 3D Y/C separation and noise reduction by the three-dimension signal processing (Optional)
Provide the daily/weekly reservation-recording schedule
Time-shifting function, simultaneously watch and record the TV program with immediate replay and pause
Full function infrared remote control
"[/quote]

---------- Post added at 20:01 ---------- Previous post was at 19:30 ----------

those ATI VIVO (Video-In,Video-Out) cards 'x1600 pci', are they any good for realtime 720x576-PAL AVC Encoding CrC ?.

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

sorry for the snip, lots of very interesting info in your post :tu:

dunno about x1600 ATI cards, but my 'All in Wonder' Radeon 9800se copes with capturing realtime 720x576 mpeg2 at 8Mb/s with 48KHz 16 bit stereo, which is fully DVD compatible, but makes very big files. For Mpeg4/Avc files I wouldn't be surprised if a third party converter is available, although, obviously, having it done in realtime by the card, is preferable. :)

we may be getting beyond the OP's requirement to just watch TV on his PC monitor, though ;)

Re: Ntl feeding into pc ?
 

ROFL Come on read the posts binlada whats a cheap n cheerful jobie just to watch TV.
As so far as encoding with a VIVO is concerned COME ON would you do it ? :p

---------- Post added at 23:13 ---------- Previous post was at 23:10 ----------

Heh nice : I have 9800pro somewhere I might try it... The only capture I do these days is from a DV source never tried composite.