It's possible to get carried away...

When setting up all of this fta stuff, it's highly possible to go overboard and get carried away with all the options, equipment, and add ons you can put in to your system's setup. I'm getting close to getting to that point.

Prior to now my computer was only pulling in signals from a satellite receiver's tv out, which meant that it could only see whatever channel that the satellite receiver was on, just like a tv or vcr. After this weekend, it'll be able to see all the unencrypted channels on the satellite just like the fta satellite receiver, and what's more, be able to record stuff, just like a tivo or high powered dvd recorder! Better yet, it's better than a tivo or dvd recorder because it records directly to a hard drive that's got 132 gigs on it. Recording in VCD Quality, that gives me over 8 solid days of recording potential (that's 24 hour days!). On top of that, the way that this is being hooked up, via an extra Linear Port on an Invacom Quad LNB, the stuff that the computer does has no effect on what's being watched on the living room tv and vice versa (well, there is a little of an affect in that the living room controls the motor on the dish, and that means the pc can only see whichever satellite the motor is letting the dish look at at that givin point in time, but for the most part, that's ok since most of the time I'll have the dish setting on G10R at 123 Degrees West)

At the moment, I've got a pc that will, after this weekend, be able to pull in satellite signals directly from a lnb on a motorized dish. That dish currently feeds a fta satellite receiver in the living room. The computer pulls in over the air (normal antenna) signals via an all-in-wonder video card at the moment. The computer can send video and audio signals to the tv as well as pick up tv stations. The all-in-wonder sends video signals to a vcr that is hooked up as the in port on an a/b switch going in to the main satellite receiver's antenna in port. Unfortunately, I had trouble getting the audio to come out of the all-in-wonder setup properly to get to the vcr so I made due and worked around that problem by using stereo extension cords coming out of the computer's sound card.

Those extension cords (about (3) 20-foot cords - cheap buys at Radio Shack - and yes, you can make them go outside just like coax... just make sure to use lots of electric tape to seal the connectors tight) send audio to a Creative Audigy Soundblaster External card that I use to get dolby digital out of the main satellite receiver. Yes, that external sound card works fine as a stand alone doohicky to pick up dolby digital without needing to be plugged in to a computer's usb hub or ports... Really amazing little gadget. Surprised they don't make them anymore.

Anyways, I keep the extension cords at the Audigy unhooked most of the time unless I want to watch something in the main tv at the living room that the computer's looking at... then I have to flip the a/b switch, which turns off the normal atenna in going to the main living room and also plug in the stereo extension cords to audigy's line in... Also need to turn off satellite receiver to keep there from being two sounds from two channels going over the speakers coming off the audigy. This setup allows me to not only see tv on the computer, but watch and hear stuff that's playing on the computer in the living room... Really nice now that nbc and some others are putting tv shows on the air in case you missed them. The other night my wife and I enjoyed watching Heroes this way off of NBC's website. We'd missed it the night before and hadn't recorded it on vcr. This is technology that's very awesome!

Anyways, more to post and clarify what all I'm talking about in future posts, but now it's getting late, and I'm getting tired, so off to bed I go, to dream of the tv watching possibilities...