HVR-950 question

[vandassen]

I bought the HVR-950 from Hauppauge and I'm not fully understanding what it's capable of... ($30 how could I not?). the lingo is confusing the heck outta me

I'm new to tv tuners and I'm curious what this will pick up. I currently have Shaw HD cable (here in Canada) and the cable connection goes into my HD cable box. So far I'm plugged into the coax and I get about 40 analog stations. poor quality. if I put a digital box in between the cable and the tuner would I get the digital signal that I get on my tv? and would I need a better tuner to pick up the hd signal?

If I was to get a HDTV tuner card would I be able to plug in the cable directly to the tuner card and take the cable box out of the equation entirely? Like, be able to change channels, record, etc on my HTPC. Is that possible?

thanks for any help and info you can send my way

 

[Jamin43]

if I put a digital box in between the cable and the tuner would I get the digital signal that I get on my tv? and would I need a better tuner to pick up the hd signal?

all I can speak to is my experience with a TV tuner here in the U.S. My local cable - and over the air all went Digital per federal / local law.

I have a digital cable box - and a digital Comcast cable tuner - and it has different outputs ( coaxial, HDMI, component, S-video ). The coaxial output is an analog signal and plays standard definition television through my analog tuner just peachy.

If I had a digital tuner - I don't think it would work - but the digital cable feed wire < that is my input to Cable company tuner box > would plug direct into the tuner card - and the tuner card would unscramble the signal and give me channels selection on my PC.

The card I'm using has ATI 550 technology and the Analog signal looks quite good on both 15" and 22" High Def monitors.

With my setup - I change channels via my Comcast cable tuner - while leaving my PC at channel 3 similar to the way many people have their DVD - or VCR's set up to record.

 

[tremmor]

I just bought one yesterday. Ya won't need a cable box. Im getting analog but very good quality that im comparing with tv quality. I cannot detect any channels for HDTV QAM. not a biggie though. I just posted about an issue this morning about booting with it connected. I will keep it if i get through my little mess. Im using windows 7 pro 64 bit. works well with the software that comes with it and windows media center. it will be another adventure getting it to work. at least was for me.

Just a note: there are updates available for the 950Q.
Here is the support page: http://hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hvr950q.html
Also if the HD is a biggie for ya you can call your cable company and ask if they support HDTV QAM.