Vista Tutorial - Setup to make the perfect WMC TV...

Howdy everyone,

So I've been doing some tinkering and researching on WMC and how to make the perfect TV setup. My ultimate goal is to have WMC give me all of my channels I would normally see on my cable box (including HD channels, and possibly premium channels). And as expected, I am hitting some road blocks. I have several questions that I haven't been able to find clear answers to.


1) I've been able to receive only analog basic cable channels from my cable provider (Cox cable, Washington DC area) into my computer via my TV tuner. From what I've researched, this is because the company encrypts essentially anything they can charge for, and this means HD and premium channels. Is this the story with most media pc setups with a direct cable-in connection?

2) Is running a set-top box setup a good alternative? I have been eyeing several remotes that would support this setup in WMC, but I'm still unsure how it works. It seems like it would be a way to receive premium channels, but can you receive the HD ones? Since the computer would read the signals through the coax cable, and the cable box only sends HD through component or hdmi outputs, it seems like I wouldn't receive HD channels via the coax output-->PC.

From the looks of things...how the heck do I receive my cable HD channels on my computer! I've been using OTA and it looks fantastic, it'd be great to receive more.

Well I think what your looking for is the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner. With it you can connect you full digital cable and full HD channel list will be able to play directly through your Media Center PC. It is basicly the same thing as your box you have now but made for the computer.