(Bob) wrote in message . com...
I don't know anything about watching TV on my PC but I've heard it is
possible. I have digital cable and wonder if getting a tuner card for
my PC would work for watching the channels provided by my digital
cable provider.

I'm not too concerned about recording altough it would be nice. If I
can get good reliable reception I would love it. Is this possible? I
have a 2.6 ghz processor with 1.25 gigs of RAM and an 80 gig HD. I
can use either Windows XP home edition or Linux, whichever is better
for the task.

If it is possible, what is a decent card to buy? I can spend up to a
couple hundred, and possibly a little more. Thanks for all replies.

Bob

You'd better check with your cable provider before you run out and buy
a card - DIGITAL cable requires a decoder box (that's always
proprietary) to work..... I guess you could run a cable from the
digital decoder box to the computer's card - but you'd still have to
change channels on the decoder box, not the computer, and you'd only
be able to record whatever channel the box is putting out. I seem to
recall that you can still get the analog cable signal for the basic 12
channels if you don't usee the decoder, but that may have just been my
area.

I had digital cable and I gave it up. IMHO, it's the BIGGEST RIPOFF
ever devised - and it ISN"T, contrary to Comcast's advertising, more
reliable, clearer, or easier to use than satellite (which I also had
in the past). I have old fashioned analog cable now - I pay $12/mo for
exactly the same channels I used to pay $34 for..... and it doesn't go
out 2-3 times a week like digital did.

Good luck.
ECM