Watching OTA off my laptop

[xzxz]

Does anyone know how to hook up an HD tuner to a laptop? I have a Samsung T451 tuner that I use with my HD-ready Sony TV. Just for kicks, I want to see if I can watch OTA off my laptop screen. The tuner has a 15-pin (female) connector for computer monitor setup. My Dell laptop also has a 15-pin (female) connector. My problem is that both are "video out" connectors. I can't just use a 15-pin male-to-male cable to connect the two. What do I do? Is it just not possible? Do I need a PCMCIA tuner card? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[soncaliente]

Fusion TV Gold USB

Unfortunately, there is not a way to get your OTA HD signal from your set top box to your laptop. There are several very expensive solutions but nothing really practical. It interested check out the HTPC section in the AVS forum.

There are some other ways to do this however. One possible is using an external USB ATSC tuner. Here is one bundled with the Snapstream PVR software.

http://store.snapstream.com/fusionhdtv-gold-usb.html

Snapstream also has a pretty nifty solution to stream HD content from an HTPC to your laptop. http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtvlink/

The only bad thing is there is a cost involed for both the hardware and software. Another solution could be using the free MYTH TV.

 

[roashru]

xzxz, Most usb 2.0 hdtv tuners are o.k. for viewing only. IMPORTANT: if you want to record the digital tv make sure the software supports locked audio!.

If you want to hook up the samsung t451 for viewing and recording you'll have to buy a firewire capture card with locked audio currently the cheapest one is the canopus advc110 I use this to watch and record digital tv from a voom receiver to a desktop or notebook computer. I mostly watch through a video editor with the preview window expanded any other ohci firewire compatible software will work.

 

[xzxz]

thanks for all your suggestions. i will look into all your links.