Virgin Cable TV on PC

[Yeknodathon]

Hi

Is it possible to have Virgin Cable TV on a PC? If so, any suggestions about hardware and soft/w needed to run on an AMD XP3200 PC would be appreciated?

I don't really want to buy a HDTV and access to an external aerial is limited in a poor reception area (so PC tv cards or USB tv tuners are not really an option) - just wondering whether tv signal from a Virgin Cable can be converted or made to run on a PC?

Thanks in advance!

Yeknod

[dannyboy83]

I'm pretty sure you could take the output of your cable box, i.e., SCART and connect that to a video capture card to record the signal.

Is your aim to record TV programmes onto your PC for archiving or burning to disc?

[Funkstar]

The normal way of doing it is to hook your cable box to a video capture board and then control it via remote IR senders. MediaPortal should be able to do this for you with the right hardware (Hauppauge PVR boards are usually recomended for this).

Alternatively, it is possible in theory, to get a DVB-C card with CAM slot along with the appropriate CAM and a cable subscription card to decode the raw digital streams.

I say in theory because i don't know for sure if it is possible with NTL/Telewest/Virgin, some intensive searching may be required. I know it is possible woth Sky cards using the Dragon CAM and a DVB-S card, but there is no garantees it will continue to work in the future. You would also loose out an any interactive services too.

[analogueaddict]

Hi,

I've been trying to figure out a way of doing this myself, but it's not looking good right now. This service uses a card, therefore if you want to use a DVB-C (which is what I'd want to do) you'll need a card which has a CAM, and which can handle the Virgin Media encryption system.

The other option is to record to a capture card, but analogue capture cards are of only average quality in my experience.

The other option often recommended is to use a high quality DVD Recorder (a top Panasonic or Sony seem to be favourites at the moment) which can record true RGB, then record from the cable box onto DVD-RW, which can then be loaded into a PC for editing or archiving.

I will continue looking, but right now recording into a PC with a DVB-C card looks like a long shot.

Best wishes,

Dave

[Yeknodathon]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm looking for a solution to play on my PC monitor - I'm not so interested in recording but would be nice.

Regards

Yeknod

[directhex]

Hi,

I've been trying to figure out a way of doing this myself, but it's not looking good right now. This service uses a card, therefore if you want to use a DVB-C (which is what I'd want to do) you'll need a card which has a CAM, and which can handle the Virgin Media encryption system.

The other option is to record to a capture card, but analogue capture cards are of only average quality in my experience.

The other option often recommended is to use a high quality DVD Recorder (a top Panasonic or Sony seem to be favourites at the moment) which can record true RGB, then record from the cable box onto DVD-RW, which can then be loaded into a PC for editing or archiving.

I will continue looking, but right now recording into a PC with a DVB-C card looks like a long shot.

Best wishes,

Dave

it's unfortunately a violation of the T&C to do it

and as per usual, google is useless when it comes to discussions of CAMs

*POSSIBLY* a Dragon CAM could emulate your STB sufficiently to get a recording - paired with a card like a technotrend c-1500. it works for me with top-up tv, a t-1500, and off-the-shelf top-up CAM for IDTV

[jamin]

As mentioned above its a violation of T&C to use the PC to recieve and decode the broadcast. You more than likely need a card reader to get the Box Key from the Smart card, which is a breach of T&C's as you are tampering with their equipment.

A setup like this breaches most of the security measures put in place by the cable company to protect themselves and their subscribers.

If you used this set up, how would the cable company know when you have viewed a PPV movie? As the DVB-C card can't communicate with the servers to report the PPV. If you watched a PPV like this you are commiting a crime.

Your intentions are more than likely benign and you wouldnt use the kit fraudulently, but I wouldnt advise it. Its a different beast to DVB-T as this is a one way system and the kit is owned by the subscriber, whereas all the decoding kit in a cable setup is owned by the cable company.

[Yeknodathon]

Okay, thanks for the info. I'd be subscribing to the service and have no intention of breaking any T&Cs - its just that'd like to watch the service on my PC monitor rather than unncessararily buying a TV!!

Err, looks like it is necessarsy to buy a Tv??!!

[directhex]

you could use an analog card like a hauppauge pvr150, an IR blaster to manage channel changes, and a virgin set-top box. that'd work

[Funkstar]

If you used this set up, how would the cable company know when you have viewed a PPV movie? As the DVB-C card can't communicate with the servers to report the PPV. If you watched a PPV like this you are commiting a crime.

You can call me stupid if you like, but i had never thought about those implications of using a DVB-S card. All i would want to do is watch and record the Discovery network of channels on my HTPC

This is one reason i look forward to IPTV. Discovery already do an online subscription, but if they opened it up in the future so you could use it with things like MediaPortal and MythTV at a decent quality then i'm there

[directhex]

You can call me stupid if you like, but i had never thought about those implications of using a DVB-S card. All i would want to do is watch and record the Discovery network of channels on my HTPC

This is one reason i look forward to IPTV. Discovery already do an online subscription, but if they opened it up in the future so you could use it with things like MediaPortal and MythTV at a decent quality then i'm there

they wouldn't

iptv means more windows media DRM

[Funkstar]

iptv means more windows media DRM

Yeah, probably. sucks.

Going a bit OT here: there is a TV service in Norway (i think it's norway) that is real IPTV and multicasts MPEG streams over RTSP to it's subscribers. There was a discussion about it on the MythTV-Dev list ages ago. I think they got recording and timeshifting working on it too.

[jamin]

they wouldn't

iptv means more windows media DRM

DRM makes it very hard to illegally view providers content. While I disagree with the way DRM is currently being used by certain companies, an IPTV service provider would very quickly go bust without some sort of access control.