125 Channel Tuner Digital Cable

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My TV Tuner Card Says it Only Handles 125 Channels but my Digital Cable goes to 999

Most, ok... all TV tuner cards that tune NTSC/PAL analog TV are able to tune 125 stations.

Now this confuses alot of people. Especially since their Digital Cable or Satellite goes up to 999 stations (or more!). Are you limited to just watching the lower 125 stations?! The answer is no, of course not. Although the analog tuner does only handle up to 125 stations, say via analog cable... you can get your digital cable channels with the help of an IR Blaster or in some cases (certain DirecTV boxes or certain Motorolla digital cable set top boxes) a serial cable. For more information on DirecTV serial control see DirecTV D10 Serial Control HowTo

You need to use your set top box (e.g. digital cable box or satellite receiver) to decode/tune the digital cable, and run the video and audio output of the digital cable box to your TV tuner/encoder (either via svideo, composite, or coax input) and use a PC controlled IR Blaster to automagically change the channel on the digital cable box at the appropriate time to record your favorite shows.

Frequent Questions About Digital Cable

Q: Is there any sort of CableCARD I can use with my PC to decrypt/decode digital cable natively into my PC?

A: Yes, finally. Although to use it you will need to be running Microsoft Vista. Currently ATI is your only option and you have to buy the CableCard tuner with a new computer. Here's a link to the product: http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonderdigital/index.html

Q: Are there other ways to get digital cable content into my PC natively (i.e. not re-encoded analog)

A: Yes, but with several gotchyas, caveats, "yes but...", and it depends... See the to be added QAM and HDTV Over Firewire articles. But don't get too excited as these options are limited and don't work for everyone as it varies from cable company and geography as to what programming/channels are encrypted or 5c flagged to allow firewire copy. There's no way to view encrypted digital content even if you subscribe to it legitimately, and most of the premium channels are generally encrypted at the head end... hence the interest in obtaining CableCARD support mentioned previously.