Posts with tag satellite
Posted Jan 10th 2008 5:53PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, Hardware
Want to capture high definition television on your home theater PC, but don't feel like shelling out $1000 or more on CableCard tuners that only work with Windows Vista? Hauppauge is
preparing to launch a $250 box that will capture 1080p video from a cable or satellite box and automatically transcode it to H.264 video for storing on your PC.
The Hauppauge HD PVR connects to your set top box's component or "YPrPb" output, so what you're capturing is an analog signal. You'll need to use an IR blaster to let the USB TV tuner change channels.
When you combine the analog source with the fact that your video will be compressed, it's safe to say that you won't get the same kind of video quality with the HD PVR as you would with a true CableCard tuner. On the other hand, the HD PVR is going to be a
lot cheaper than the competition. And while CableCard tuners only work with Windows Vista Media Center, Hauppauge has a good track record of putting out TV tuner cards that work with everything from
BeyondTV and
SageTV for Windows to
MythTV for Linux.
[via
Brent Evans]
Posted Jan 8th 2008 11:55AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, Software
One of the biggest problems with building a PC-based personal video recorder is that it's kind of a hassle to record TV programs if you have a satellite dish. With analog cable, over the air HDTV, or even with unencrypted digital cable channels, all you have to do is plug a cord into your PC's TV tuner card and you're ready to start recording live TV. But with a satellite dish or most digital cable boxes, you need to set your computer close to your set top box and run an IR blaster cable to act as a virtual remote control, flipping channels on your box every time your PVR wants to record a new program.
If you've got cable, you can get around this by using the incredibly overpriced new CableCARD tuners that will let Windows Vista Media Center users turn their $1000 computers into $3000 HD PVRs. But there's still no way to record satellite TV directly to your PC. But it looks like that's about to change.
Earl Bonovich at the DBS Talk forums has managed to snag a couple of
high resolution screenshots of an upcoming DirecTV PC tuner. DirecTV's been
working with Microsoft to create a Windows Media Center capable tuner for a while now, but this is the first time I've seen any pictures. No word on pricing or availability.
I know the images above are kind of hard to read, so we've printed the text after the jump.
Continue reading DirecTV PC tuner details
Posted Jan 2nd 2008 9:59AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Hardware
Once upon a time turning your old PC into a homemade personal video recorder was a snap. All you had to do was buy a TV tuner card for about $100, plug in an analog TV cable, and use some free or commercial software to start recording shows. But the TV landscape is a bit more complicated these days, and if you have digital cable, HDTV, satellite TV, or other newfangled doohickeys hooked up to your TV, you might not even know where to begin.
Missing Remote has put together an excellent primer on choosing the right video source for your PVR. For example, if you want to record over-the-air HDTV using a digital antenna, you can use pretty much any modern TV tuner. But if you want to record the unencrypted HDTV signals your cable company sends out as well as standard definition digital cable channels, you're probably going to want something a bit more specialized, like
Silcon Dust's HDHomeRun for the HDTV, and a second tuner with an S-Video port and an IR blaster to record and change the channels on your digital cable box.
Of course, there's a lot more to building a PVR than choosing the right TV tuner. You also need to choose the right software package, make sure you have enough hard drive space, and make sure your video card can support your display. But in end, your video quality is only going to be as good as your TV tuner.
Posted Dec 1st 2007 10:21AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Industry, Awards
Variety reports the 12th Annual Satellite Awards will be handed out on December 16, 2007. The awards cover film, television, DVD, and new media. These appear to be the first major awards to involve television series from the new season, and include multiple nominations for both Chuck and Pushing Daisies, including nods for lead actor and series, comedy or musical. Other new show nominations include Patricia Heaton (Back to You) and Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) for lead actress, comedy or musical, Glenn Close (Damages) for lead actress, drama and Mad Men for drama series.
Continue reading 2007 Satellite Award nominees announced
Posted Aug 29th 2007 9:30AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Cable/Satellite
School is back in session, the U.S. Open has begun, and another Bush appointee has resigned. You know what that means, don't you? It means that the new fall TV season is fast approaching. With it comes the push by the networks to promote the crap out of their new shows. Okay, so they've been promoting the crap out of them since the end of the last television season, but now it's going to start to get annoying. I'm talking about last-week-advertising-before-elections annoying.
NBC will lead this charge by making the pilots for their upcoming fall shows available on cable and satellite Video On Demand systems (known as VOD henceforth). Partnering with NBC in this venture are cable companies Comcast, Cox, Charter and Time Warner and the satellite services DirectTV and DISH Network. The pilot episodes of Chuck, Bionic Woman, Life and Journeyman, as well as a 30-minute fall preview special, will be available on September 10th.
Continue reading NBC fall TV pilots coming to Video On Demand systems
Posted Jul 17th 2007 6:00PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite
Not that we knew it was a race, but apparently cable television providers have
overtaken satellite companies as the top distributors of personal video recorders in the US.
Cable companies have 52% of the PVR market, compared with 38% for satellite providers. Telephone providers and standalone units like from companies like TiVo account for the rest.
The survey data was
collected by the Carmel Group and was gathered from over 4,000 people in 2005 and 2006.
Posted Apr 12th 2007 2:18PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Programming, Daytime, Celebrities, Talk Show
Oprah is changing up her scheduled programming today in order
to interview members of the Rutgers women's basketball team. The women were the subject of a racial and sexist slur by radio host Don Imus recently. On his show, Imus inexplicably called them "nappy-headed hos" after they lost the NCAA women's championship game. As a result, he was suspended by CBS Radio and has been
fired by MSNBC.
Today, coach Vivian Stringer and ten players will appear on
Oprah via satellite. It's only the second time they have spoken out in response to Imus' April 4th comments. Yesterday, the coach and several players said they found Imus' comments to be hurtful and insensitive.
Does Imus also deserve a live-via-satellite interview with Oprah?
Posted Mar 24th 2007 12:01PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Cable, Watercooler Talk, Ratings
According to this report in the NY Daily News, the average household gets more than 100 television channels. Even with all the choices, viewers pretty much stick to about 15 channels. Obviously, that grouping of channels varies by viewer. I'd be interested to know what the most popular channel on television is and what is least popular (probably cable access or C-SPAN).
That number actually sounds about right to me, although I would say my range is more like 20 channels. I've listed my Top 15 below, in order of most-watched... what are your top channels?
Continue reading What are your Top 15 channels?
Posted Mar 12th 2007 10:22PM by Martin Conaghan
Filed under: News, HDTV, PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite
Hauppauge has emailed me to say they're launching one of their new hybrid TV cards at CeBit this week.
Basically, they're billing it as "the world's first quad mode tuner."
It's capable of receiving all UK TV broadcast formats, including analog, Freeview digital, satellite and High Definition (HD) satellite.
It should be available mid-March, at around £180, and comes in PCI format.
The card is packed with the usual Hauppauge features, and will undoubtedly drop in price as the year rolls on -- but you should expect this kind of card to be the standard for a PC-based TV tuner/PVR in the UK in the very near future.
Posted Feb 25th 2007 2:00PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, Late Night
Out of all the late night hosts, Conan O'Brien is far and away my favorite. I'm not quite old enough to have enjoyed Letterman and his hipper days at NBC, and Leno's populism doesn't quite do it for me, but Conan came along during my high school and college days, and the humor of Late Night is perfect for a weird guy like me riding in the caboose of the Generation X train.
I'll admit Conan isn't always perfect, and I wish sometimes he'd get rid of that whole "If They Mated" segment, which I never found all that funny, but he still comes up with some great material, such as the clip I've placed below. Actually, I only wanted to show you the first part of the clip, a preview of a series called Meet the Press for Idiots, but the following segment featuring God trying to bond with Jesus is pretty funny, too.
Continue reading Meet the Press for Idiots - VIDEO
Posted Feb 16th 2007 4:17PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Programming, Horror
Not long ago Kevin hepped us all to the new Chiller channel from NBC/Universal for DirecTV. Now we have a full schedule and some details on some more of the programs that will be a part of the new horror-themed channel. Here's what folks can look forward to:
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- New Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985 version)
- Night Gallery
- Tales From the Crypt
- Friday the 13th: The Series
- Freddy's Nightmares
- G Vs. E
- American Gothic
- Monsters
- Twin Peaks
The new channel launches on March 1. Sitcoms Online has the full schedule here. As Kevin pointed out, it's all recycled content, but it's good recycled content (at least to a horror fan like myself), so I'm not complaining. Aside from the TV series, the new channel will also feature movies like The Shining, Psycho, Cat's Eye, The Andromeda Strain, and some of those great Abbot and Costello Meet [Blank] flicks.
One final thought: No Tales From the Darkside? What's up with that nonsense?
Posted Jan 24th 2007 7:28AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, Web
Funny piece this week by Joe Lavin. He and his father bought his mom a TiVo for Christmas, so she can tape all of her favorite shows, including all those Law and Order spinoffs and all the CSI shows. Not only did he discover that all these devices don't like to communicate with each other (the TiVo instructions tell you not to hook it up through a DVD player and the DVD player instructions advise you not to hook it up through a cable box or satellite), he also discovered that his mom almost made a big mistake when buying something for him.
Continue reading Writer buys mom a DVR; mom almost buys son an iHop
Posted Jan 16th 2007 6:33PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: American Idol, Celebrities, Judges, News and Gossip
Late last week, Paula Abdul appeared drunk or stoned on a morning television show in Seattle. She was doing a live satellite interview with the affiliate from New York. In the interview,
which I posted last week, Paula swayed back and forth on camera and she slurred her speech.
Last night she appeared on
The Tonight Show and explained her behavior to Leno. She said that she had two television stations asking her questions in her earpiece. Instead of calling an end to the interview(s), she just went with it. She thinks she was answering questions from Alabama while appearing on television in Seattle. She denied being drunk or on medication, but she couldn't really explain away her slurring. Maybe that's just how she talks now? Paula said it's a big deal out of nothing and all she was trying to do was have fun with a challenging situation.
Do you guys believe her?
Posted Jul 2nd 2006 10:15AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, HDTV, Cable/Satellite, Site Announcements
Our regular roundup of what's on our sister blog, HD Beat.
Posted Jun 19th 2006 7:12PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Cable/Satellite
Are you super rich? Do you love television? DirecTV has come up with what our pals over at
Engadget call "the ultimate couch potato package". And I couldn't have said it better. The new package offers
everything. HBO, Showtime, Sports, HDTV, Adult programming, and PAY PER VIEW... and no fewer than ten DVRs to spread around your pad. And, it's all for less than the monthly cost of a new Mercedes (assuming you don't put any money down)!
The cost is about $625/month or $7,500 a year.
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