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Hauppage 1600 STB HD is not widescreen on WMC

post #1 of 9
10/12/08 at 8:00pm
Thread Starter 
This is my setup

HP m8120n PC
Hauppage 1600 TV tuner card
Vista
Windows Media Center
STB = Scientific Atlanta 4250HD
HP w2207 22" Monitor

I've had the PC for a year, and finally decided to put together the HTPC when I purchased the 4250HD STB (SARA). The 1600 only allows for a COAX, S-Video or Composite connection, so I connected my STB to the Tuner card using the S-Video connection.

The SD channels work fine (with black bars on the left and right) on my widescreen monitor, but the HD channels do not produce a widescreen picture. I have WMC setup as a widescreen monitor, however, the HD channels produce black bars on either side of the screen (similar to SD) as well as grey bars on the top and bottom of the screen.

My STB is pushing a 1080i signal, but I don't believe my PC is picking up on it.

Any help would be appreciated.
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post #2 of 9
10/12/08 at 8:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by NBSinc View Post

This is my setup

HP m8120n PC
Hauppage 1600 TV tuner card
Vista
Windows Media Center
STB = Scientific Atlanta 4250HD
HP w2207 22" Monitor

I've had the PC for a year, and finally decided to put together the HTPC when I purchased the 4250HD STB (SARA). The 1600 only allows for a COAX, S-Video or Composite connection, so I connected my STB to the Tuner card using the S-Video connection.

The SD channels work fine (with black bars on the left and right) on my widescreen monitor, but the HD channels do not produce a widescreen picture. I have WMC setup as a widescreen monitor, however, the HD channels produce black bars on either side of the screen (similar to SD) as well as grey bars on the top and bottom of the screen.

S-video is still 4:3 SD, so won't yield you wide screen on any channel no matter what you do.

Quote:


My STB is pushing a 1080i signal, but I don't believe my PC is picking up on it.

Any help would be appreciated.

again S-Video is SD video ONLY! so your only going to get a 480i video out of your STB into the HVR-1600.

- Josh
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post #3 of 9
10/12/08 at 9:12pm
Thread Starter 
Is there any way to send an HD signal through the 1600 using an HD STB?
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post #4 of 9
10/12/08 at 9:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by NBSinc View Post

Is there any way to send an HD signal through the 1600 using an HD STB?

nope.

- Josh
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post #5 of 9
10/13/08 at 5:36am
The only way you'll be able to view HD from your SA STB is through the firewire port, using a player like VLC. (www.videolan.org) I do it all the time with my Motorola STB. There's no interaction with media center as far as I know. VLC does allow you to record the HD stream and play back later, though I haven't tried it myself. I'll often keep two football games up on the screen at once - one in VLC and the other in media center (and both in HD).

Bob
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post #6 of 9
10/13/08 at 6:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by RLDWV View Post

The only way you'll be able to view HD from your SA STB is through the firewire port, using a player like VLC. (www.videolan.org) I do it all the time with my Motorola STB. There's no interaction with media center as far as I know. VLC does allow you to record the HD stream and play back later, though I haven't tried it myself. I'll often keep two football games up on the screen at once - one in VLC and the other in media center (and both in HD).

Bob

that all depends if the firewire port on the STB is enabled, a lot of mso's disable that port.

- Josh
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post #7 of 9
10/13/08 at 8:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by umdivx View Post

that all depends if the firewire port on the STB is enabled, a lot of mso's disable that port.

- Josh

True, but it only costs the price of a firewire cable to find out (assuming his PC has a firewire port on the mobo). Besides, aren't the cablecos *required* by law to provide it?

Bob
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post #8 of 9
10/13/08 at 11:03am
Thread Starter 
I guess my last question would be. Is there a way to set this up so that I can atleast view the HD channels in wide screen, as opposed to having bars on all 4 sides?
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post #9 of 9
10/13/08 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RLDWV View Post

Besides, aren't the cablecos *required* by law to provide it?

Bob

that is a misconception. No they are NOT required to enable it.

Quote:


I guess my last question would be. Is there a way to set this up so that I can atleast view the HD channels in wide screen, as opposed to having bars on all 4 sides?

yes but NOT in vista media center. You can with SageTV, BeyondTV, basically anything besides VMC.

What you'll need is the Hauppauge HD-PVR: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html

it is a component video capture device that will accept up to a 1080i HD video from a cable box, sat box, even an HD DVD/Bly Ray player. Problem is it is an mpeg4 box and media center currently doesn't support mpeg4 tuner/capture cards.

Another option is to purchase a bran new OEM pc from dell, gateway, hp, ect... and get a new pc with cable card tuners.

That really is the only way to get HD video (premium HD, espn, hbo, ect..) from cable tv into a PC.

- Josh
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