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Components needed for HDTV (1 Viewer)

Lon_Coleman

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I am going to be adding a HTPC to my theater setup.
Can someone run down the list of equipment I need to view HDTV. I understand I need a new antenna and the signal will travel where??...into a card in the HTPC.
As incentive I added a pretty cool HTPC background that I found on the net yesterday.
Link Removed its about 700k zipped.
 

Matt Stryker

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Lon- Heres a basic list, but you may need a bigger antenna depending on how far you are from your OTA towers. Use www.antennaweb.org or www.titantv.com to find out where the HDTV towers are in your area.
You'll need an antenna (I recommend the Radio Shack double bowtie for starters, very affordable http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=15%2D623). From there, use RG-6 coax cable (just like normal coax only higher grade, usually used for satellite installations). From there, you can choose one of the many HDTV cards for your HTPC. A few are the AccessDTV card and the HiPix card. Both allow recording onto a hard drive, and the HiPix allows you to share those files with other HTPCs equipped with HiPix cards.
HDTV uses about 9GB/hour to record, so if you're going to do a lot of HD recording you should invest in a 120GB (or more) drive.
 

Lon_Coleman

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Thanks a lot.

Its looks like I have almost everything, except the card. (most important piece).

Can I use a diplexor to compine satellite and HDTV signals?
 

Matt Stryker

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If you mean directly from the satellite, the answer is no. To get any satellite TV (ncluding HDTV) you'll need a satellite receiver to decode the satellite signal. The PCI cards are limited to only OTA HD transmissions.

Check over at AVSForum in the classified for the cards, ususally you can pick them up for 15-30% off retail from people who bought them in areas where there is no HD available.
 

Lon_Coleman

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I was refering to OTA, I was concerned about only having one RG-6 cable running from the outside into the theater room. I was wondering if normal satellite signals and HDTV signals could "share" one RG-6 cable.

Thanks agian
 

Scooter

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Ok..I have 2 sources for HD..both satellite based. A Unity Motion reciever slaved to my 4DTV and the DISH HD unit. How do I get connected to a PC to time shift...save..etc. ?
 

Matt Stryker

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Scooter- All of the current gen of PC cards accept an 8VSB input over coax; I'm not sure if you have a way of outputting an 8VSB signal from your dish receiver/Unity or not.
Its not quite as simple as DVHS solutions, but you can archive the HD files using DVD-R or a large capacity tape drive.
You could also look into this: http://216.221.175.208/ They add a firewire out to the UM and then it could be run to a firewire card on a PC (maybe; hopefully someone else will chime in).
 

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