HDTV Forum

Dear Felisa and Justin,

I will be subscribing to HDTV through Comcast and I want to watch HDTV programming on my DELL Inspiroon notebook(notebook does not have internal tv tuner)

So, do I purchase an external TV tuner ( and hook up through USB I guess) for my notebook and hook up my Comcast HDTV tuner to the notebook tuner and then the notebook tuner to my computer?

Does the Notebook tuner need to be HDTV ready/capable?

does a true HDTV external notebook tuner exist?

Also, is the picture compromised as the signal first goes through my Comcast HDTV tuner, then through my HDTV notebook tuner?

Finally, can I run the Comcast HDTV tuner to a run-of-the mill external notebook tuner and still receive a true HDTV signal.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

thank you

I want my HDTV:-)

You'll have to use the Comcast cable box to decode the HD signals from Comcast (unless there is a cable card ready tuner for your notebook and your local Comcast supports it). Then you have to get the video from the cable box to the notebook via component, DVI or HDMI. You might have to convert it to RGB. Plus the digital audio.

Using such a small screen negates some of the advantages of HD. The difference in PQ will not be that dramatic and it may not be worth the trouble.

In order to handle the high bit rate for HDTV it requires a dedicated chip set that comes with PCI slot cards and will work on the faster PCs and Macs that have fast processors and fast video cards. About the best that you normally get in a notebook is DVD quality video.

I did a Google search and actually found one that might work- the catch it is for Australian HDTV only!.

There are boxes that would let you use the S-video analog output of the STB and convert it to digital on USB 2.0 to a notebook in digital DV format- but this is not HDTV.

I don't think the DVI or HDMI inputs will ever appear on a computer that can record HDTV. The whole idea of these interfaces is to prevent copying

An external HDTV tuner exists for the Mac.---A HDTV OTA and digital cable digital tuner and DVR for the Mac at $349:

This does not help you with a Dell, but if you are interested in the technology there IS a HDTV external box as an accessory to the Apple Mac via IEEE 1394 Firewire connection. It will tune digital OTA and unencrypted digital cable (if you have that kind) While it will work with a Mac notebook in SDTV they don't have the processor speed for HDTV. That takes one of the dual processor G5 models.

I have not tried it, but it looks interesting to anyone with the right Mac running Mac OSX ( Apple's version of Unix) You get some really cool video and DVD software for free too.

a HDTV external box as an accessory to the Apple

If you do find a Windows compatible external HDTV tuner that needs IEEE 1394 inputs look at the Sony Vaio notebooks. I have one with both USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 inputs and Windows XP Pro and it will handle SD video.

Edit note: I just tested the link and it gives a "timed out error". Use this link and enter " HDTV" in the search box and you can find the
"Elgato EyeTV 500 HDTV DVR"

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/W ... eStore.woa