New HTPC

So I'm putting together a HTPC for my new Panasonic 50" Plasma and I've got a quick question.

I've never done anything related to watching TV on a computer, so I need some information/advice. More precisely, I have a Cox (not sure if anyone here that can help has one as well) digital cable box and it feeds out an S-video connection to the TV. I'd like to purchase an 8600GT and have the S-video feed from the cable box to the graphics card and then have a DVI to HDMI cord back to the TV. Question: does this sound at all feasible? If not, give me some ideas. I'd like to be able to record TV, watch blu-ray movies, and do some light gaming.

I know a lot about computers, but when you hook these televisions up to 'em I'm thrown for a loop. I'm doing some more research, but I need some other opinions.

The case I'm looking at has only a single PCIe x16 slot and a single PCI slot (for which I'd like to reserve a wireless card for).

Thanks fellas.

+1 for Daft. You need a capture card with s-video in.

Well, thw S video is analog only, will not carry a HD signal, you need component or DVI or HDMI to do this.

Capture cards are very finicky. Cable uses QAM to carry the digital signal, and U need a QAM compliant card to get it.

Look for one of the "pass through" models, and one that uses hardware decoding to keep cpu load down.

The AVS Forums have a wealth of info on these babies.

And yes, even the 3450 ATI card does a phenomenal job of handling HD and encoding stuff, less cpu usage than my 8800 GTX's have, for about $39.

You will need an add in program, such as Beyond TV to ease the recordings by adding the tv listing/program guide to allow for click and record.

Nvidia does not make any PC TV Tuner cards. Secondly, Hauppauge makes the best tuner cards on the market. For any HD content you'll want a UVD-enabled card (or equivalent with different name) - Radeon HD 2400/2600/3450/3470/3650 or GeForce 8600/8800GT/9600GT (there are many others, but those are the one's that'll best fit your needs). Most good tuner cards work very well with very little effort with Vista's Media Center (Home Premium and Ultimate - which are the ideal OSs for HTPC).

I'd build a platform around an AMD 5000+ or 4850e and a 780G or Geforce 8200 motherboard. Neither will require a discrete graphics card, since they both are capable of fully decoding HD content through the IGP. I'd add a Hauppauge 1800 or 1600 tuner (or two, since Vista can utilize up to FOUR tuners simulaneously). And a couple Western Digital 640GB hard drives (currently the lowest $/GB on the market, and extremely fast to boot). Throw it all in an Antec, Lian Li or Silverstone case, and you have an awesome system.

On video cards the S-video is OUT only. On the tuner cards, S-video is IN only, but I'm not sure you can stream it like you would a video capture card (I have not tried this yet, at least). I have a Hauppauge 1600 card and it picks up all the OTA HD channels flawlessly, I have not tried the ClearQAM driver for Vista MC, but the ClearQAM function did work in WinTV (Hauppauge's program), but that program sucks, so I uninstalled it. Also, ATI has annouced a Cable HD tuner external box for use with CableCARD to get encrypted channels which you must subscribe to through your cable provider. I do not have any kind of digital or HD cable, so I cannot attest to it's functionality with my current 1600.

So here is a diagram of the cable box that I am currently using:

http://www.newelectronx.com/prodde [...] 661-acdegk


The goal is to be able to record those channels and the free over-the-air HD channels. The question: how should I plug this into a tuner / capture card?