Everything about HD…part three
October 7th, 2005 at 5:12 pm by Nikki
Now we’ll show you how to complete setup and get started watching your programs in High Definition!
Compared to traditional cable or analog setup, creating an HDTV setup on a PC has a number of extra steps.
Installing the Antenna
CNET has a great video on installing an HDTV antenna. Be sure to look there if you want more detailed instruction.
The method of installation for your antenna will vary based on model but the basic steps will be the same provided you’ve chosen anything larger than the “Rabbit Ear” style.
1. See www.checkhd.com to determine which direction to point your antenna. This website will require you to enter your address, and then will suggest a direction toward which you should point your antenna.
2. Find a suitable mounting location that will withstand the weather conditions of your area. The best location will give an unobstructed view in the direction of the signal.
3. Assemble the antenna according to the manufacturer’s directions.
4. Mount the antenna in the pre-determined location.
5. Run an RG-6 Coax Cable from the antenna to your PC and attach connectors on each end.
6. Adjust your antenna with a compass according to the direction of the signals you wish to receive and to account for any obstructions.
7. Install the proper grounding wires to your antenna. You may need a licensed electrician to legally install this in your area. Check local laws.
If you are unsure about any of these instructions or don’t feel equipped to handle the installation, contact a service professional.
HDTV Television to PC Connection
NOTE: You can skip this step if you’ve chosen to use your PC’s monitor to display HDTV.
Connecting your PC to your HDTV Television is the next step in the HD setup process.
To do this, you will need a video card that supports outputting a signal in the format that your HDTV Television supports.
There are four common connection styles:
1. Digital Video Input (DVI)
If your television supports DVI, you will need a DVI cable, available at most computer and electronic stores, and a video card that supports DVI. Most new video cards already have a DVI connection on them. DVI allows the video to be sent digitally from your PC to your HDTV. Using this method you are assured the best video quality. When available, this is the best method to output video from your PC.
2. High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)
HDMI is a new standard on HDTVs. HDMI is a smaller version of DVI which includes both digital audio and digital video. Since DVI and HDMI are pin-to-pin compatible this connector can be converted from DVI via an adaptor. If your television supports HDMI but your video card doesn’t, you may purchase a DVI to HDMI adapter or cable. This cable will allow the video from your DVI video card to be sent to your HDTV. Please note: when using an adaptor you will not receive digital audio since the original DVI connector does not output digital audio. This is the second best method to output video from your PC.
3. RGB-15 or VGA Monitor Cable
If your television supports RGB-15, you will need only a monitor cable, available at most computer stores, to connect the PC to the television. This connection is just like the connection that PC monitors use.
4. Component Cables
Component Cables—identified by three RCA connections, Red (Pr), Green (Y) and Blue (Pb)—are the most common inputs for HDTVs. To connect your PC to your television via this method, you will need a video card that supports component video output and a component cable. Some video cards support component video output on the card while others require a component video adapter. We suggest a card like the ATI Radeon 9550 to handle this task. You can buy a DVI-to-HDTV (Part Number: 151-V01093) adapter from ATI.com to allow the Radeon 9550 to support component video output.
After connecting your device go to the Display Control Panel in Windows, set the resolution of the video card to a support resolution of your television. This will commonly be 1280×720 or 1920×1080. Please refer to your TV manual for more information.
Configuring Beyond TV
Once you have assembled all of the hardware components, you are ready to configure Beyond TV to work with your HD setup.
To configure Beyond TV for HDTV:
1. Run the Beyond TV Setup Wizard and select “Add a new video source”.
2. In the “Video Broadcast Sourceâ€? page, choose “Antenna (Digital)”.
3. Input your postal code to get the lineup for your area.
4. Select your HDTV TV tuner card (capture device) and click next.
5. At the HDTV signal strength screen, use the signal meter to determine which stations you receive. You may need to adjust your antenna at this point to get the best signal.
6. Once you have configured the tuner device, run Beyond TV.
7. From the SnapStream.Net Program Guide, wait for guide data to load and then go to the channels starting with 1000. These are the HD channels.
NOTE: HD channels will appear in the thousand range above all your highest analog channels. If you have analog channels in the 1000’s then your HD channels will begin at 2000.
8. Find a program to watch, select it and choose “Watch this episode”. You can also schedule programs to record in the future just as you would any other Beyond TV recording!
Wow, that was a lot of information! We hope you now feel ready to really jump into HDTV. We’re looking forward to our release of Beyond TV 4—and we hope that now you are too!
October 7th, 2005 at 10:50 pm
I’m Waiting…
I’ve had an HD tuner card for almost a year now and am still waiting for some decent s/w to drive it. How much longer do I have to wait?
Less teasing, more delivering, please.
Thanks,
Terbos
October 8th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
Since HD will require more space, BTV4 will have to have better hard drive and folder mangement. It will need to have folder or Hard drive fail over from the main or default recording area. If this is not going to be a part of Beyond TV 4 then it is pointless to make a product like this, due to customers want somethign easy to amnage and not need to check up on it every day.
Greg Caulder
October 9th, 2005 at 12:48 am
Why don’t you use raid and stop your whinning about hd failover.
October 9th, 2005 at 9:56 pm
Terbos – who are you king george?
i think you should get your copy LAST..
why dont YOU write some software.. i’ll be sure to come to your web site and start demanding stuff from you..
October 10th, 2005 at 9:59 am
where/when can we get this beyond tv 4?
October 11th, 2005 at 11:10 am
Beyond TV 4 will be available before the end of the year. Believe me, we want to hit release as much as you want us to. For those of you rearing to go, it will be quickest to purchase it in our online store at http://store.snapstream.com.
October 13th, 2005 at 1:54 am
If I buy btv 3 now, can I dl the beta btv4 for my hdtv card? Thats the only thing stopping me from purchasing right now. Since I have no analog tv tuner card.
October 13th, 2005 at 11:25 am
As of today there is no public beta to download. I just checked.
October 15th, 2005 at 4:33 pm
Please allow Firewire Capture for Cable Boxes like the Motorolla 6200 series… please.
October 16th, 2005 at 6:00 pm
OVA Digital Listing support for Canada please! Thx!
October 26th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
Please allow BTV4 to receive satellite hdtv through a dvi input; here is a card that would work as an input to keep the signal digital- the majority of future hdtv programming will be satellite!!! http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/hdtv-cards.html#myhd
October 26th, 2005 at 3:56 pm
My appologies!!! Im wrong- the dvi input on that card is a loopback card- you cannot input satellite digital SIGNAL, THERE MUST BE A DVI DIGITAL CAPTURE CARD THAT BEYOND TV CAN SUPPORT, PLEEEESE…
October 30th, 2005 at 10:33 pm
Let’s try this question again. Will BTV4 have enhanced disk management? For example manage multiple disks, place recordings as appropriate on disks with adequate space and report the total available time as the aggregate of all of the disks free space.
This would enable us to use multiple low cost disks effectively.
October 31st, 2005 at 2:40 pm
I bought Beyound TV last June or July of this year.
Is it still a free upgrade??
Any release date ??
October 31st, 2005 at 3:25 pm
Aron, If you bought Beyond TV over a year ago, upgrading to Beyond TV 4 will cost you $29.99. There isn’t a public release date yet, but I expect it to start shipping in the next few weeks.
October 31st, 2005 at 4:48 pm
If we do not use HDTV will there be any reason for someone to upgrade from Version 3? Will Version 4 allow for better compression (Divx, Xvid) My system does not meet the Requirements as it is only a P4 1.9 gig is it worth me upgrading to 4, anything I really need that 4 offers that I can not do with 3 (Besides HD)?
JB
October 31st, 2005 at 5:08 pm
John, There will be other reasons to upgrade to Beyond TV 4. I only expect for a small percentage of users that upgrade to Beyond TV 4 to ugprade for the HDTV PVR support. DivX and FM Radio are other features in Beyond TV 4 and there are a few other items that will be in there.
November 5th, 2005 at 4:51 pm
Poundingfoot, No, Beyond TV 4 won’t include any “virtual disk” capabilities as you describe them. This might be something you can achieve at the operating system level in Windows XP (and, in any case, that’s probably where technology like this belongs vs. in an application like Beyond TV).
November 9th, 2005 at 1:08 am
Rakesh, you miss-understood Poundingfoot’s question. I believe he was asking about the hideous video folder management in BTV3. I have video folders on multiple drives. These folders are easy to create in BTV but it does not automatically change to another folder when the drive is full. All it does is start deleting older video files are your drive to make room for new ones (I know you can change this). You have to manually change folders to another drive when the default or current one is running out of space. Those of us with multiple drives should not have to Raid them in order to save video on them. Having to switch manually is archaic. Allow us to save files on multiple drives.
January 6th, 2006 at 1:46 am
Is there one recommended HdTV Tuner card with a HDMI output..?
March 17th, 2006 at 6:28 am
HEY!! i just seen this page and i’m really impresed, its really well done!! its really friendly and usefull
keep going my friend!
March 20th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Your disine is good, but content is poor
March 20th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
nice page!! i willl bookmark it and i will show it to all my friends! so cool
well done
March 21st, 2006 at 12:14 am
Good design!
March 21st, 2006 at 12:24 am
I liked the story type tour of your railroad. It would be nice if you added pictures into the story. Overall it is very nice.
March 21st, 2006 at 7:14 am
Glad to see other hams into model railroading. I operate on all the ham bands 160 – 10 meters. As for the model railroading, it’s all N-scale. See ya a bit later maybe on the radio.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:05 am
I liked the story type tour of your railroad. It would be nice if you added pictures into the story. Overall it is very nice.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:09 am
I think that it is good! I read it evry day $)
March 25th, 2006 at 1:49 am
I liked the story type tour of your railroad. It would be nice if you added pictures into the story. Overall it is very nice.
March 25th, 2006 at 9:00 am
I think that it is good! I read it evry day $)
March 25th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Your disine is good, but content is poor
March 27th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Your disine is good, but content is poor
March 29th, 2006 at 4:14 am
HEY!! i just seen this page and i’m really impresed, its really well done!! its really friendly and usefull
keep going my friend!
April 2nd, 2006 at 12:13 am
I liked the story type tour of your railroad. It would be nice if you added pictures into the story. Overall it is very nice.
April 2nd, 2006 at 12:18 am
Glad to see other hams into model railroading. I operate on all the ham bands 160 – 10 meters. As for the model railroading, it’s all N-scale. See ya a bit later maybe on the radio.
April 3rd, 2006 at 1:23 pm
I must say that in the swedish song contest, why are not marina on teh picure om bwo – temel of love? she is a part of bwo to, right?
April 3rd, 2006 at 1:25 pm
I would complement yo
April 6th, 2006 at 12:28 am
Good design!
April 6th, 2006 at 12:53 am
I must say that in the swedish song contest, why are not marina on teh picure om bwo – temel of love? she is a part of bwo to, right?
April 6th, 2006 at 12:56 am
nice page!! i willl bookmark it and i will show it to all my friends! so cool
well done
April 6th, 2006 at 1:09 am
nice page!! i willl bookmark it and i will show it to all my friends! so cool
well done
April 6th, 2006 at 9:42 am
Your disine is good, but content is poor
April 7th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
I liked the story type tour of your railroad. It would be nice if you added pictures into the story. Overall it is very nice.
April 7th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
I think that it is good! I read it evry day $)
April 7th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
nice page!! i willl bookmark it and i will show it to all my friends! so cool
well done
June 17th, 2006 at 2:14 am
Dragon,
I have also been looking for a tuner card wit ha DVI input. The coaxle inputs do NOT provide a good picture on a plasma.
I bought a MDP-130 with daughter card and it will NOT work with Linux and the DVI input is not for the incoming video signal fro ma receiver.
Then I bought an HD-5500 http://pchdtv.com/hd_5500.html and it works with linux BUT the picture quality o na plasma is awful.
So, I am also out of luck. I am NOT going to use a coaxle cable o na plasma.
# DRAGON Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 3:56 pm
My appologies!!! Im wrong- the dvi input on that card is a loopback card- you cannot input satellite digital SIGNAL, THERE MUST BE A DVI DIGITAL CAPTURE CARD THAT BEYOND TV CAN SUPPORT, PLEEEESE…
January 4th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
This is a very useful thing. It’s detailed and with pictures offers a good lesson.
When will be another lesson?
i’m looking for satellite tv details.