MCE and HDTV

Question

I have a Dell XPS Gen 5 running Windows MCE with an ATI XT850 Platinum Edition Video board. ATI's website says that it supports HDTV. I have the Dell 2405FPW flat panel display. I also have Dish TV in my home. My question is: If i purchased a Dish TV HDTV converter box could i then watch HDTV on my computer with no other hardware or would i have to purchase some other hardware to work with it, and if so what would i need? Thank you in advance for any advise you might give me.

wtcnbrwndo4u · Answer

I don't believe your computer came with the specific HDTV cables, so you'll need to get them.

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2562766

That should be it. Just to check, look in the back at your S-Video port. See if there are 9-pins.

Rclarke6 · Answer

Thank you for your response, On the back of my computer, there is an s-video jack as well as DPI and VGA jacks. The S-Video jack has 7 pins and what looks like a key slot and another slot at the bottom, is this what your referring to?? Also the cable your referring to, is that the svideo one or something else?

Rclarke6 · Answer

Thank you very much, wtcnbrwndo4u , I really appreciate the timely response. I am assuming then that once i have everything hooked up i just start MCE and let it find the converter and i am good to go.

wtcnbrwndo4u · Answer

@Rclarke6 wrote:
Thank you for your response, On the back of my computer, there is an s-video jack as well as DPI and VGA jacks. The S-Video jack has 7 pins and what looks like a key slot and another slot at the bottom, is this what your referring to?? Also the cable your referring to, is that the svideo one or something else?

That is what I am referring to. The cable is a HDTV connector that runs through the S-Video port.

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2550138
-This one is the 7-pin one. I would contact ATi on this however, because it doesn't mention support for the X850XTPE.

Rclarke6 · Answer

Need to ask another question, I just visited the ATI site and found that the S-Video jack on the ATI card is an output rather than an input. So how do i connect my Dish TV HDTV Converter box to my computer?

audiopho · Answer

You need to buy a HDTV tuner card such as the ATI HDTV WONDER. You can buy this card in many retailers (off or on-line). Any other devices like the one you suggested would not work as you may think.

Check this site for more info about using HDTV on home PCs:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=04f3a15c0aa54da25bbf4e7e5090958b&daysprune=&f=26

I myself own a XPS Gen4 with MCE2005 and an ATI HDTV Wonder tuner card installed. MCE2005 allows two tuners for one does the recording and viewing on another, simultaneously.

More on MCE2005 info can also be found on:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=sw_xpmedia

My rig: XPS Gen 4 2gb dram2, ATI X800XL, ATI HDTV Wonder, etc...

Rclarke6 · Answer

Thank you very much for the info,Audiopho, I will read and learn and hopefully get something setup soon.

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MCE and HDTV

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