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An RF Engineer with no idea!

  • 01-03-2007 05:23PM
    #1
    pedropumpalot
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 65 ✭✭


    Boys and Girls,

    I am new to this kind of home tweaking so forgive me for my ignorance. I am currnetly living in my parents house who are looking for something to record off the T.V (32" Samsung HDTV Ready) and we have recently done away with a VCR and dont really want to get a DVD Recorder and we also recently go a new Dell Dimension 9200 with Vista so I am hoping that the computer will be able to take the place of the vcr.

    We have regular sky and terestial tv coming from the roof and into a sky box in the tv room and the computer is in an adjacent room with a plaster board partition. I have a wireless network set up in the house already for the internet but can this be used?

    I have drawn a copy of my setup at home and hope that somebody might be able to point me in the direction of how can I capture my terestial tv and sky on the PC and possibly play them back on the TV rather than burning them to DVD. All suggestions welcome.


Comments

  • #2
    pedropumpalot
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 65 ✭✭pedropumpalot


    Sorry here it is :o


  • #3
    8T8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,757 ✭✭✭8T8


    I assume Vista Home Premium is what you have ?

    Well the simplest way for best quality is to run cables if within distance & if the PC is simply in the next room that shouldn't be a problem. If you cannot locate the required length cables locally I recommend Lindy.ie and will use them as examples of what to get.

    The cables that you will need to run are:
    VGA - VGA is easier instead of HDMI with Samsung TV most Samsung TV's have a PC button on the remote now for easy access to the VGA channel.

    Composite or S-video - pick one of these s-video is better quality but requires a special scart rgb to s-video converter to work. Composite will work the regular scart adapters, read connecting set top box rough guide for more info.

    Sky+ boxes have a built in s-video out so you do not need to convert the scart output a straight s-video connection will work if you have one.

    RCA/Phono audio cables - these are the audio cables that will carry the audio from the Sky Box into the tuner of the PC. Composite video cables tend to already come with the red/white audio cables.

    USB MCE IR blaster - USB can run up to 30m if you daisy chain powered hub's & cables. This particular device controls the remote for Media Centre and allows MCE to control the Sky set top box.

    I'd also recommend a wireless keyboard just in case.

    Lastly an MCE compatible tuner with s-video/composite inputs.

    All of the above is for grabbing the output from the Sky set top box for the terrestrial TV is is just a matter of running the cable into the back of the tuner on the PC. However MCE can only work with one source at a time it does not support multiple sources so it would be one or the other in active use no both Sky & terrestrial.

    Other media centre software like GB-PVR and Media Portal do have this feature if you require it.

    With that setup you will have a direct link to the PC in the next room though keep in mind that is not an ideal setup as to power it on you must be in said room, you can power it off from the TV room via the remote.


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