• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Advice On Internet/Cable TV

Share this page

Mickey Richaud

Mickey Richaud

Moderator
Staff member
Gold
Country flag
Offline
Here's the deal: Janet and I are in the process of moving (movers picked up stuff Tuesday). We have basic, non-HD cable and internet with WIFI at the cabin, though when the house is built, we will have HD and internet. The TV channels are delivered via one of these little guys - you'll note the lack of connection possibilities:

cable box.JPG

We'd like to be able to record programs with the existing setup, but I can't seem to find anything that will work with basic cable. We want to record one program while watching another. From what I've seen, it appears that TIVO and HULU and ROKU and (insert your favorite acronym here) all have to have a digital signal and hookups. And I believe the only way we can record with Comcast is to upgrade to an HD package and use their DVR. Is there a DVR that will work off WIFI and pick up network and cable programming? Or what exactly are our options? I'd rather not upgrade until we have to after the house is finished, but may not have that choice.

Thanks, and remember, you're dealing with a Luddite here!

Mickey
 
"Wireless" means it receives a broadcasted signal. Air digital is still free and can be received by anyone with a digital or converted receiver. Subscription digital cable programming is transmitted by cable or encrypted satellite signal specifically to prevent it from being accessed by non-subscribers wanting to use wireless DVRs. There are such things but they are generally part of security systems and are paired with coded transmitters.
 
Forgot to mention that we're in the foothills of the Smokies, and pretty far from the local stations, so antenna to receive "local" stations is not an option.
 
Satellite?
 
Unless you want to buy a VCR, you'll likely have to go digital to use a DVR in the house. We just did that update at our house a year or two ago so that my wife could have a DVR (she now uses a Tivo).

As for WIFI -- if you mean TV over your computer network WIFI connections -- not at this time as far as I'm aware. The WIFI is only for network/internet, and does not stream the cable TV signal.

You're retired in a cabin in the woods, Mickey. Just read more books and work on those MGs. :grin:
 
drooartz said:
Unless you want to buy a VCR, you'll likely have to go digital to use a DVR in the house. We just did that update at our house a year or two ago so that my wife could have a DVR (she now uses a Tivo).

As for WIFI -- if you mean TV over your computer network WIFI connections -- not at this time as far as I'm aware. The WIFI is only for network/internet, and does not stream the cable TV signal.

You're retired in a cabin in the woods, Mickey. Just read more books and work on those MGs. :grin:
Click to expand...

Will surely be doing that! Along with hiking and fishing and guitar and banjo picking and...

This is mainly for Janet to catch up on her favorite shows. Looks like I'm gonna have to upgrade.

You know, for all the technology that's out there, you'd think there would be an easy way to do this!
 
drooartz said:
As for WIFI -- if you mean TV over your computer network WIFI connections -- not at this time as far as I'm aware. The WIFI is only for network/internet, and does not stream the cable TV signal.
Click to expand...

OK, so you can watch TV programs on the internet, why doesn't WIFI do the same? Again, I have no idea what I'm talking about! But something doesn't ~compute~ here...
 
With my Apple TV as a link I can view anything on the computer (MAC) through wifi, I think, they call it AirPlay on the tv.
 
Mickey Richaud said:
OK, so you can watch TV programs on the internet, why doesn't WIFI do the same? Again, I have no idea what I'm talking about! But something doesn't ~compute~ here...
Click to expand...

You CAN watch TV shows over a WIFI connection, but that is not the same thing as watching what's currently on live on a TV channel. WIFI is just a different kind of Internet connection -- similar to plugging in an Ethernet cable, just with no cable. So if you just want to stream video from a website (from Hulu or Netflix or from NBC's web site) then WIFI is no problem.

Cable TV signal is an entirely different beastie. It has (for your purposes) nothing to do with the Internet, it's utterly separate (I'm simplifying here for the layman, but it's close enough for our purposes). That broadcast info is sent down to your cable box and displayed on the TV, but never hits your Internet such that you could stream it to a computer or some other device over your local WIFI network.

Think of it this way: Internet is the road network, cable TV is the train track network. Similar, but normally incompatible. Sometimes you can get the same content delivered over both, but not all the time.

If you can find online resources to watch your shows, then no DVR is needed and really no cable TV either -- but you have to find those resources, and they'll usually be delayed somewhat from the original broadcast time. Not everything is available either, so you will miss some things.
 
Drew is 100% correct.

WiFi or cat5 cable, you can stream online TV shows and movies to your TV, computer, iPad, etc.

The cable box is a separate and unrelated input to your TV. You can not WiFi that signal to an iPad or computer.

If you have a cable into your house, and are happy with Comcast, the easiest thing to do is call them and tell them you want a DVR (Digital Video recorder). Yes, there is a cost, but IMHO, the less TV a person watches, the more valuable a DVR is. We watch very few shows, but we record them and can watch whenever we want. Worth the price. Thye can also get you your local stations...at a cost of course.

In addition, WiFi for video streaming has not proven very good for me. I also recently moved and spent a day pulling Cat 5 to all my computers and TV's.
 
Thanks for all the responses. Think I'm just gonna throw in the towel and call Comcast and see what they can do for me.
 
Back
Top