Building a MCE PC...some questions

[OSUKid7]

Well, after being seduced to buy an Xbox 360 (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=57388) soon after it comes out, I'm thinking about building a Media Center PC and using the Xbox 360 as an extender to our main TV.

I do have some questions though.
I currently have Time Warner Digital Cable, and the Time Warner DVR. This lets me record two digital shows at the same time. I really like that.
So I'm going to give up the TW DVR of course, but I want to keep digital cable. What do I need in order to have TW digital cable work with the MCE PC? Will connecting the coax in to a digital set top box, and putting that output into a standard TV tuner card work? Would I then need to turn of OSD on the TW box? (is that possible?) OR, would I need to get a digital TV tuner card? will that work with TW digital cable?

Also, I'd really like to have (at least) two tuners, or rather, I'd like to be able to record two shows at once. Now in my thinking, that doesn't sound possible unless I pay for two digital cable boxes from Time Warner (significantly more per month). The TW DVR only has one coax in port, so it must split the signal inside. Would I be able to have dual tuners on the MCE PC without paying for two digital cable boxes?

I guess those are my main questions. I'm also considering a HDTV card. Am I understanding correctly that MCE 2005 Rollup 2 allows 2 analog and 2 HD cards?

Also let me know if I'm forgetting anything in my logic here.

Thanks. :)

[Jason Dunn]

The answer is pretty short: there's no way to get your MCE to work with digital cable. It's encrypted by your cable provider, and the MCE can't decrypt it. MCE's are analog only for the most part. The exception is if your digital cable box outputs an un-encrypted signal that you can capture and pump into the MCE. Then you can use the MCE with an IR blaster to control the digital cable box. It's all pretty ugly.

[OSUKid7]

The answer is pretty short: there's no way to get your MCE to work with digital cable. It's encrypted by your cable provider, and the MCE can't decrypt it. MCE's are analog only for the most part. The exception is if your digital cable box outputs an un-encrypted signal that you can capture and pump into the MCE. Then you can use the MCE with an IR blaster to control the digital cable box. It's all pretty ugly.
Darn. :( How would I know if my cable box outputs an un-encrypted signal? Does that just mean the AV signal, without any additional OSD video?

I really like having the extra digital channels (not to mention the nice On-Demand channels [but I could live without those]). Too bad...I really love having my media center laptop here at college, and if it worked well with digital cable, I'd definitely give it a try at home.

[Jason Dunn]

Darn. :( How would I know if my cable box outputs an un-encrypted signal? Does that just mean the AV signal, without any additional OSD video?

I think you'd just have to test it and see if the MCE can get the signal in an unscrambled form.

...if it worked well with digital cable, I'd definitely give it a try at home.

That's the major pain point with MCE owners right now. That's what all this cablecard buzz is about.

[Mike Temporale]

Would I be able to have dual tuners on the MCE PC without paying for two digital cable boxes?

Sorry, I'm a little late on the reply...


You'll need a digital box per tuner. Just like you need a box per tv.

[Mike Temporale]

The answer is pretty short: there's no way to get your MCE to work with digital cable. It's encrypted by your cable provider, and the MCE can't decrypt it. MCE's are analog only for the most part. The exception is if your digital cable box outputs an un-encrypted signal that you can capture and pump into the MCE. Then you can use the MCE with an IR blaster to control the digital cable box. It's all pretty ugly.

Ugly? Well, it's not the easiest solution, but I've dealt with a lot worse. 8)

[Mike Temporale]

Darn. :( How would I know if my cable box outputs an un-encrypted signal? Does that just mean the AV signal, without any additional OSD video.

Chances are it does. You're TV would just take a normal Coax or sVideo feed right? So, the signal out of the Digital box is un-encrypted. You just tell MC to control your boxes. I've been doing it for a year now, and I won't go back to real TV. :mrgreen:

[OSUKid7]

Hmm, well I've put this off long enough, I think I'll wait until Vista is released and hope for better HDTV support. I'll give this another look next Christmas season.

[Mike Temporale]

More HD support would be nice, but for me, it's not a big deal, there's not too much HD content in Canada right now, so... Well, there's about 12 channels. Hopefully within this new year, we'll hear some announcements about cable card and HD support. :)