HTPC cable TV card advise needed

[thecompu-doctor]

Hi everyone, I'm working on building a Home Theater PC for a customer running win7. He wants to be serve as his set top box for comcast cable tv. He currently has one that he uses in this manor and wants to upgrade to a newer system with more horse power.

So my question is, do I need to get an authorized cable card from comcast or will a tv tuner card from new egg work?

thanks guys

 

[coffee]

Hi everyone, I'm working on building a Home Theater PC for a customer running win7. He wants to be serve as his set top box for comcast cable tv. He currently has one that he uses in this manor and wants to upgrade to a newer system with more horse power.

So my question is, do I need to get an authorized cable card from comcast or will a tv tuner card from new egg work?

thanks guys

Ceton makes cards especially for what you want to do. They come in 4 tuner and I do believe 6 tuner models. They also come as usb and pcie. I recommend the pcie models if your using a linux based system. If just windows then the usb would be fine.

Use the ceton and then rent a cable card from comcast. The CC is inserted into the ceton card and then you call comcast to activate the card. From there the rest is quite easy. Please visit the ceton website and read the setup instructions. Comcast has a special phone number to activate cc's with cetons.

coffee

 

[thecompu-doctor]

It will be a windows 7 based system. Budget should be about $100. Do you have any preferred model of ceton?

thanks

 

[Frick]

A quality card on a $100 is not realistic. I agree with using a Ceton infini TV card but they are approx $200.

 

[coffee]

It will be a windows 7 based system. Budget should be about $100. Do you have any preferred model of ceton?

thanks

Ceton makes pretty much 2 models right now. The 4 tuner and the 6 tuner. Both are available in usb or pcie. I would recommend the 4 tuner pcie card.

As Frick mentioned, 100 bucks does not get the job done. The way to look at it is that if you buy the 4 port card you are paying 50 bucks per tuner. Not a bad price. The cards are well made and well supported in windows and Linux. I use the 4 port pcie card with mythbuntu and it works just great. I can record 4 shows at once and also watch a recorded show at the same time with no issues.

coffee

 

[phaZed]

I don't have any experience with these, but the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun looks somewhat promising. The Prime model has 3 tuners, accepts a cable card, and streams and is controlled via your LAN to PC, Android and iOS. Works with WMC and DLNA too.

$119.99 on Amazon

 

[thecompu-doctor]

Thanks guys, ultimately recording tv is not a concern for him. He really just wants to watch a single line stream.

 

[isqrd]

You are still going to need a Ceton or HDHomeRun in order to get the HD premium channels from Comcast. You can look at the Hauppauge clear QAM PCI-e card for access, but make sure the channels your customer wants are on clear QAM.