CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

REGNAD · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 173 Location: RICHMOND VA

im running a htpc to my 1252 via vga-rgbhv cable. i would like to get a digital cable box to connect to the same pj. what would be the least expensive sollution?
Comcast is the provider.
shannon

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

Kimcoder with a componet cable from the cable box to the Kimcoder and then a vga to rgbhv cable to the second input on your 1252. Of course if you don't have second input then you will need an rgb switcher like a KVM or a NEC ISS switcher, etc.

REGNAD · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 173 Location: RICHMOND VA

whats a kimcoder?

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

Kim (buen, a member here and @AVS) from Crescendo Systems makes arguably the best (commonly) available reverse transcoder for Component->RGBHV conversion.

That said, your least cost (and most flexible) solution may be an HDFury (assuming your cable box has DVI/HDMI output.)
This will also allow you to hedge against obsolescence, as more and more sources turn digital-only (at least on the HD side.) Kimcoder is still HD Analog (component) to HD Analog (RGBHV.)

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

Really you should find out what the outputs are on the cable box you are getting before you make your decision.

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

REGNAD · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 173 Location: RICHMOND VA

i'll check the cable box and see what it has....
thanks for all your help.
shannon

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

Hmmm.... also assumed was that your cable box is an HD cable box. Digital cable may also be SD, which means you would have to consider a scaler rather than a transcoder. Are you talking HD or SD?

REGNAD · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 173 Location: RICHMOND VA

good point, it will be an HD box but both HD and SD will be watched. how about outputting from the cablebox into my htpc, upconverting SD, and passing to pj? is there a pc vid card with Digital vid inputs? or component inputs?

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

With a 1252, you can probably live with the HD cable boxes' internal SD->HD scaling options. If you had a super high-end projector then you would probably benefit from external scaling, but with anything in the entry level you can probably just run with 1080i right out of the cable box.

REGNAD · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 173 Location: RICHMOND VA

so with scaling out of the way, i just need to figure out the best way to connect the cablebox to pj. depending on the cablebox i coud get an HD-Fury or could i use a WinTV-HVR-1600 and let it replace the cablebox?

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:43 pm Post subject:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_hvr1600.html

From what I could tell, the WinTV is OTA and *analog* cable. It also supports clear QAM, which means if your cable company sends any unencrypted digital content (locals in HD for instance), you could get those off the cable, too. All the rest of the digital programming, and especially any HD or premium programming - no dice.

Go with a cable box - especially if you can get one with a DVR. That way, you can spend time actually WATCHING movies on your projector instead of jacking around with drivers, software, video card, sound card, reclock, powerstrip, etc.

SC

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

Depending on the cable box you could use either an HDFury (for digital DVI or HDMI outputs) or a Kimcoder (for HD analog component.)

Using an HTPC ("home theater personal computer") as a TV tuner opens a whole can of worms that I can't discuss, both for want of experience and lack of time. Suffice it to say that the software that works with commodity tuner cards is as a whole pretty poor (in my limited experience) and the obsolescence rate will leave you high and dry eventually.

My advice: Get an HD digital cable box and service from your cable company and save the WinTV money for an HDFury.

REGNAD · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 173 Location: RICHMOND VA

just checked my current cable box. it's an Explorer 8300hd by scientific atlanta. i dont plan on getting a dvr model for my theater, for now i will asume that the non dvr model will have the same vid connections.
this model has:
1-hdmi
2-1394
1-sata

i know what i can do with the hdmi, but does anyone know what can be done with the other outputs?

wkomassa · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 101 Location: Brookfield, WI

I have an Explorer 3250HD with component out into my 1252 with an IFB-12 and the SD picture is watchable. I stretch the picture to use the whole 16:9 raster and try to watch as little SD as possible. It does work though, and the Explorer boxes do allow the option to just set the output to 1080i which is how I have mine set up. Like I said, the SD picture is watchable and varies greatly from station to station based on how crappy your cable reception is. But it does work. I've never owned a scaler, but scaling crappy SD cable signal seems a lot different than scaling 480i from a less-noisy video source.

I'm getting a Fury, so if you want the IFB-12 - somebody suggest a reasonable price and you can have it.

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

Heywood Jablome · Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 1548

Oh, and the external SATA is for expansion hard disk capacity for the DVR function.

wkomassa · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 101 Location: Brookfield, WI

Real-life experience - my 8300HD's HDMI output is enabled. Other users in my area (Time Warner Cable ~ Milwaukee, WI) also report success with this box. The 8200HD though, they haven't enabled HDMI for whatever reason.

REGNAD · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 173 Location: RICHMOND VA

cool, thanks for all the help!
shannon

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

I have a motorola box and I don't think there is an option for outputting the SD at 1080i...I might just be stupid and not looking at the menu options though.

I know how it is set up now that the projector switches to 480i if I venture away from the HD channels.