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Connecting Samsung V+ Box to PC cheaply - possible?
Brakkenjan
10-05-2011
Hi, I have a 2nd V+ box (on Tivo VIP package) but I can't afford to spend a lot of money on an extra TV or sound system (just had another huge unexpected financial outlay so it'll have to wait a while I'm afraid). It seemed a waste to decline the extra box though, and now that I have it I might as well try to use it in the cheapest possible way

I would like to be able to connect it to my PC's monitor. The V+ only has scart, HDMI and optical whereas my monitor has 2 DVI and no speakers. I've tried an HDMI to DVI converter but it doesn't show anything on screen when I do that (and that wouldn't have solved the sound issue had it worked anyway).

Is there a TV type card that I can buy to connect it to and hear it through my soundcard and view it on my monitor? I don't care re HD for now (that'll have to wait until the finances pick up again) although I'd like to use the V+ record/pause etc functions - only want to be able to use this as a second option if the OH is watching sport

I wasn't sure where to post this, it sort of falls between PC stuff and Home Entertainment. Thanks in advance for any advice/ideas!
Alan Thew
18-05-2011
It depends on what inputs your PC offers. Some soundcards, and even some onboard sound chips, have an S/PDIF digital audio input. If it's optical, you could connect the V+ to this using an optical cable to get sound into your PC. If, more likely, it's coaxial, you'd need a converter to convert the optical signal to an electrical one. Probably more hassle than you're up for (though Maplin sell such a device, if you really want to do this). If your PC has no kind of digital audio input, you'd need to buy a new soundcard to make all this work. Much better to stick to the analogue audio, especially as the video quality is not likely to be up to much.

As for video, again, some graphics cards offer at least some kind of video in, usually a composite video (looks like a normal round analogue hifi audio RCA connector) and an S-video (looks like a PS2 keyboard or mouse connector). If yours doesn't, any kind of cheap video capture card will do. I'm using a ten-year-old analogue TV card: obviously the TV bit doesn't work now we've gone digital, but the composite video input is still fine. Don't buy a purely DVB-T card: that will only let you connect an aerial to watch Freeview. You need one with a composite video input.

What you need to do is get an adaptor to convert the SCART output from the V+ box into three RCA sockets: a red and white for stereo audio, and a yellow for composite video. You'll probably then need another lead to take the two sound RCA connectors into your PC's 3.5mm audio line in jack. You can use any normal RCA to RCA hifi lead to connect the single video line -- though keep it short or you'll get interference on the picture.

Finally, power up your PC and go into the audio control panel to make sure that the line in channel is not muted and is turned up. Use a media player that can monitor a video capture source to view the composite video input from the capture card. On mine it's called "input 1"; inputs 0 and 2 are the (now redundant) tuner and the S-video inputs. I don't know about Windows but under Linux the VLC media player can do this nicely -- and it lets you timeshift and make recordings too.

Bear in mind the quality you'll get doing this method is OK, but not great: the composite video signal is as good as a perfectly tuned analogue TV picture, but not as good as an RGB signal from a cable box.

Hope some of this helps...
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