PC TV Tuner Card?

[andicap]

I have a fairly old PC 512 MB RAM 9 GB storage, slowish Pentium. I want to be able to get TVG from my cable system on my PC. Is this as simple as putting in a TV Tuner card and splitting the cable coming into my cable modem to the PC as well?
I'm thinking I won't get the channels that have to be decoded through my digital box (which is TVG) only those that come over "in the clear," -- the broadcast and basic cable channels that don't need a digital box to decode them.

Anyone know anything about this?

[JimG]

Andicap,

You are exactly right regarding the tv portion of it. (you won't pick up digital channels without a box) I'll let someone else comment on the pc part although I am pretty sure you are correct on that. i know you can split the signal going to your cable modem.

[tahoesid]

If you split the cable that would normally go to your TV and input that into your PC then you can watch the same channels on your PC. This is assuming you have a video input port on your PC and shouldn't require a tuner since it is a direct signal. A tuner would be necessary if you are wanting to be able to be able to watch and change channels on your PC as if it was a TV. Any digital channels would have to go through your box first and then output to your PC through the video input. You still wouldn't be able to change digital channels on your PC without extra equipment, but would be able to view them as on a TV.

[Indulto]

It strikes me that an external VCR is a less expensive, more flexible, and more reliable alternative to an internal TV tuner -- either on a video card, or on a stand-alone card -- but I'd like to hear from others who have actually tried it.