2405 + Comcast HD = ?

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elder_shawn

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 7, 2005
Messages
73
I'm contemplating getting an HD box with Comcast (like $7 extra a month) and I wanted to know if anyone has connected their box to the 2405 via component yet? Some people have said they were having problems with the component input.

THX!
 
I have it connected to my cable box that way, and its great. Even the pip is on HD. I did not have have a single problem setting it up. just have to make sure that you set the box to out 1080I and you are golden
 
i used my hi-def box with my 2405 as well only thing with comcast hd u cant use the dvi output from the cable box b/c of hdcp
 
nemssn4cer said:
I have it connected to my cable box that way, and its great. Even the pip is on HD. I did not have have a single problem setting it up. just have to make sure that you set the box to out 1080I and you are golden
Click to expand...

Thanks guys...I'm on my way to Comcast right now to pick up my tuner. The connections for this thing (optical & component) cost me more than $70 last night...and I bought some medium quality wires. :(
 
elder_shawn said:
Thanks guys...I'm on my way to Comcast right now to pick up my tuner. The connections for this thing (optical & component) cost me more than $70 last night...and I bought some medium quality wires. :(
Click to expand...

How does it look? I'd love to see a photo of that all running.. :)
 
Well Comcast was next to ultimate eletronics and they had a store closing sale, so I bought some monster cables pretty cheapo. Discovery HD and the two independent HD channels are crystal clear. I was watching the Utah vs OK game on CBS HD this afternoon and loved it. There were some occasional jaggies, but I think it was from the original signal.

I just use the input switch on the monitor to go between the puter and the cable box with ease. PBP is pretty worthless, but PIP is ok. The optical connection to my z-5500 sounds awesome with HD also.

I've never posted pics before....do I need a place to host them before I can post or can I upload them?

*edit

I think I found a place to host them and took some pics of Ati TV running
HD and Ati TV tuners on 2405
 
hi...it sounds to me like your my hero. I just received my dell 2405fpw yesterday. First of all , you sound a lot sharper than me. I am searching all over kingdom come on the net for info regarding this monitor and hdtv via cable (comcast), and this is the only forum that popped up. If I can impose upon your knowledge a bit, can I ask you how exactly you hook up this 2405 to view hdtv from cable. I saw your pics, but they are dark and can't see. I thought people were talking about connecting component cables directly to their monitor, until I saw your setup and the text underneath saying ati tuner cards? ...also, I just purchased logitechs z5300 and how will I hook that up to my puter?? anyway..if you can give me a summary of steps how to do it, that would be great and you will be my pal. Another friend of mine also has one of these and he thought the process was hopeless, but he never read this forum either. I called Dell and they were absolutely useless, I guess if they weren't, there would not be forums like this.
thanks for your help and I really and truely appreciate any help.
thanks
.
 
i believe nemssn4cer said he's running cable box - component cables - 2405
if someone has an ATI tuner they're plugging the 2405 into their computer
 
radiospots said:
hi...it sounds to me like your my hero. I just received my dell 2405fpw yesterday. First of all , you sound a lot sharper than me. I am searching all over kingdom come on the net for info regarding this monitor and hdtv via cable (comcast), and this is the only forum that popped up. If I can impose upon your knowledge a bit, can I ask you how exactly you hook up this 2405 to view hdtv from cable. I saw your pics, but they are dark and can't see. I thought people were talking about connecting component cables directly to their monitor, until I saw your setup and the text underneath saying ati tuner cards? ...also, I just purchased logitechs z5300 and how will I hook that up to my puter?? anyway..if you can give me a summary of steps how to do it, that would be great and you will be my pal. Another friend of mine also has one of these and he thought the process was hopeless, but he never read this forum either. I called Dell and they were absolutely useless, I guess if they weren't, there would not be forums like this.
thanks for your help and I really and truely appreciate any help.
thanks
.
Click to expand...

The first pics that I took were showing the 2405fpw running directly from Component cables connected to my HD Comcast Box.

I have an ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro (Has a TV tuner onboard the AGP Vid Card) and a separate PCI ATI TV tuner card that I use to display TV via regular cable (coaxial) I do not use the cable box to display these channels.

In order to hear the sound from the Monitor when my cable box is connected via component cable....my Logitech z-5500's have an optical input in which I run an optical cable from the cable box to the speaker control pod to get sound.

To hear the audio coming from my ATI tuners I just use the three (Green, Black, Brown)cables that came with the speakers that run directly to my sound card.

I hope this helps!
 
Yes,...fabulous....so hdtv is done directly from the cable box to the 2405 monitor with component cables. anything I need to do with the monitor as settings, buttons to push?...Oh you also mentioned you run an optical cable for sound directly to the speaker control pod on your z5500. I wonder if the z5300 has an optical input as well? I also understand that you watch regular broadcast TV with your ATI tuner card. I don't think I will do that with mine since I have a tv in the office and my whole objective is to receive HDTV on my 2405. wow..totally cool.... I will let you know how it all turns out, but I am looking for a happy ending here. again, thanks
 
[In order to hear the sound from the Monitor when my cable box is connected via component cable....my Logitech z-5500's have an optical input in which I run an optical cable from the cable box to the speaker control pod to get sound.

Again, thanks for the info. The z5300's are suppose to arrive tomorow, but now I am a bit disappointed. I checked up on the features of the z5300 and also the z5500, they are night and day, it' s like you have the adult version with all those input options and mine is just the kids version. I might put them up on ebay and try and get the 5500, I can plug in more than one item in to the 5500 and the 5300 is just a dedicated pc set of speakers. Just drives me nuts that I have to buy everything twice before I get it right. ...oh well.
thanks for the help. If anyone else has some suggestions and salavaging the z5300 so it is sufficient, let me know. thanks
 
I wanted to do this as well... How is the HD scaling on the monitor? Comcast HD is in 720p right? I know that unfortunatly 480p/i doesn't work properly over the inputs (image is too fat, black bars are too small) but haven't really tested 720p much. For 16:9 images does it leave two small black bars on the top and bottom or does it fill the entire screen? Kind of sucks that all my non HD channels will be distorted for sure so I'm not sure it's worth it or if I'm better off just getting a cheap tv tuner and sticking to regular cable (I don't watch a lot of TV)
 
Radiospots:

Bummer about your z-5300's. I'm sure they are nice speakers, but the z-5500's are on sale right now. Look for threads on Z-5500 deals on Fatwallet.com or slickdeals.net People have been getting them for around $200 shipped. I hope you get your system up and running soon! I know that you'll love it!

peacetilence:

I don't know what channels are in 720p vs 480p/i. The INHD, Discovery HD, and ESPN HD channels are absolutely awesome! There are small black bars on the upper and lower parts of the screen. Look at the pics in my post above for a clear understanding of what I'm talking about. The picture on my ATI tuners isn't really that bad, but the HD signal does look 10x better.

You can preview what 1080 and 720p looks like on your monitor with the downloadable HD previews on the windows mediaplayer site.
 
Oh so they do make HDtv tuners? I was told earlier that there were no HDtv tuner options. Thats kind of what I wanted to do in the first place instead of connecting the cable box directly to the monitors component input so I could avoid distorted 480p. I love reagular DVD's on this monitor so HDtv channels would be even better I would think. What other types of HD tuners are there? Is the ATI one the best?
 
elder_shawn said:
Radiospots:

PHP: 
Bummer about your z-5300's.  I'm sure they are nice speakers, but the z-5500's are on sale right now.  Look for threads on Z-5500 deals on Fatwallet.com or slickdeals.net  People have been getting them for around $200 shipped.  I hope you get your system up and running soon!  I know that you'll love it!


You can preview what 1080 and 720p looks like on your monitor with the downloadable HD previews on the windows mediaplayer site.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Elder Shawn...the hd previews are absolutely awesome awesome.

One more question...since you have your cable box inputing into your speaker pod via optical, does that mean you don't or do have some sort of connection to your PC?..I was curious if this is dual connected?...Thanks for your reply. I checked out the deals for this 5500 and I think it expires today sunday 10/23 at buy.com and so I think I mighf go for it. It comes out to 204 delivered, which is cheaper than can be purchased anywhere including newegg and even ebay.
thanks for the tip.
Click to expand...
 
elder_shawn, I have a question about this whole setup.

I have a standard Motorola digital cable box downstairs for my projection tv.

Upstairs I just have my cable line split with one going to the modem, the other to my Hauppauge PVR 350 TV Tuner card.

I'm considering for 1, getting the 2405fpw....and 2, getting an HD box for upstairs to put in my office.

I have never seen an HD box. So is my only connectivity option for the box to my system DIRECTLY to the monitor, or can you not use coaxial to my computer ?(i know its probably a stupid question)

My reasoning being I would like to record my HD shows with the PVR card, instead of just Analog. Does an HDTV box get all the channels in HD, or does everything else come through digital? (i.e. is there ANY coaxial hookup in the back?)

Is the only sound out from the HD box Optical? I have the Creative Audigy 2 eX Platinum with the separate 'box' with all the hookup possibilities and could just hook it up to it to play the sound via my 5300's THROUGH my computer.


...im thinking I might have to ditch this PVR and pickup an HDTV PVR possibly.

thanks for the help!
 
[
QUOTE=peacetilence] I love reagular DVD's on this monitor so HDtv channels would be even better I would think. What other types of HD tuners are there? Is the ATI one the best?
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]
Hi...you mentioned you like watching regular dvd's on this monitor, and I frankly don't care for them, they just don't look that great on mine. Can I ask what dvd decoder software you are using and how are you setting this to watch? I would really like to enjoy dvd's on mine too. thanks for your help.
 
radiospots said:
[/PHP]

Thanks Elder Shawn...the hd previews are absolutely awesome awesome.

One more question...since you have your cable box inputing into your speaker pod via optical, does that mean you don't or do have some sort of connection to your PC?..I was curious if this is dual connected?...Thanks for your reply. I checked out the deals for this 5500 and I think it expires today sunday 10/23 at buy.com and so I think I mighf go for it. It comes out to 204 delivered, which is cheaper than can be purchased anywhere including newegg and even ebay.
thanks for the tip.
Click to expand...

I'm happy you liked the HD previews! I was pretty excited when I first saw them too! When watching TV via the HD cable box and optical audio output, the PC doesn't need to be turned on. In order to output audio from the TV tuners inside my computer though, audio cables need to be connected to the sound card. You can toggle the audio sources on the control pod by pressing the input button. Did you end up buying the z-5500's? If not I saw another deal today where they were like $195 shipped I believe.
 
thenixhex311 said:
elder_shawn, I have a question about this whole setup.

I have a standard Motorola digital cable box downstairs for my projection tv.

Upstairs I just have my cable line split with one going to the modem, the other to my Hauppauge PVR 350 TV Tuner card.

I'm considering for 1, getting the 2405fpw....and 2, getting an HD box for upstairs to put in my office.

I have never seen an HD box. So is my only connectivity option for the box to my system DIRECTLY to the monitor, or can you not use coaxial to my computer ?(i know its probably a stupid question)

My reasoning being I would like to record my HD shows with the PVR card, instead of just Analog. Does an HDTV box get all the channels in HD, or does everything else come through digital? (i.e. is there ANY coaxial hookup in the back?)

Is the only sound out from the HD box Optical? I have the Creative Audigy 2 eX Platinum with the separate 'box' with all the hookup possibilities and could just hook it up to it to play the sound via my 5300's THROUGH my computer.


...im thinking I might have to ditch this PVR and pickup an HDTV PVR possibly.

thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Hopefully I understand your questions so here goes!

I connect to my HD box via Component Cables. I assume that it would be possible to connect the output on the HD box to the video input on your capture card. I have not tried to do this (thought about it), but seems feasible.

The HD box is connected to the wall by a coaxial cable just like any other cable box.

There are only a limited number of HD channels on COMCAST. I do not have the premium HD movie channels (HBO, Cinemax etc), but I do get Discovery HD, ESPN HD, TNT HD, ABC NBC FOX HD's, and the INHD and INHD2 HD channels.

There are two options for sound output on the HD box: normal red and white audio cables or the optical.

I own the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro with the optical I/O's but I do not use them. That might be an option to get your 5300's to work in this setup. I really enjoy the silence of the PC not running though.

Good luck and post if you have anymore questions. I am by no means an expert, but I can tell you what I have tried and failed. ;)
 
PHP: 
[QUOTE=elder_shawn]I'm happy you liked the HD previews!  I was pretty excited when I first saw them too!  When watching TV via the HD cable box and optical audio output, the PC doesn't need to be turned on.  In order to output audio from the TV tuners inside my computer though, audio cables need to be connected to the sound card.  You can toggle the audio sources on the control pod by pressing the input button.  Did you end up buying the z-5500's?  If not I saw another deal today where they were like $195 shipped I believe.[/QUOTE]
Click to expand...

hI, I went to the buy.com site and put it in my basket but thought I had to think about it, anyway...I went back at around 11:00 the next day and the price was still showing $219., but when I tried to check out it showed up as $229. I decided to wait till the next day and call buy.com and the phone rep told me that is the price and I should have checked out and they could have adjusted it. In other words I missed it. Meanwhile I got my z5300's and hooked them up and am not nuts about the sound. I am using the built in sound card in my A8N motherboard, do you think a sound card would improve the sound a lot? I hope so...anyway..tell me where you think you saw the logitechs for 199.00 and I will sell this one on ebay and buy that one. This time no hesitation. thanks for your help.,
 
Radiospots,

It looks like the Logitech speaker deals have dried up for now. They could go on sale again anytime though. I'm really anal about sound quality so I do notice a sizable difference between the onboard audio cards and the audigy 2. To many people it's just fine to stick with the onboard card.

The cheapest I can find the z500's now is at ZipZoomfly for $212 + shipping
 
Quick note - someone was asking about recording HD with a TV tuner card. You can't do it. Currently, the only way to record the HD off a comcast box is to use Comcast's DVR (it's adequate, but the UI is pretty crappy, but I have it so I can record HD).

There are some cards that can record over the air (OTA) HD, but none that can take a raw HD signal off a component or DVI cable and record it. The day one comes out, I'd buy it, but given all the hoohah about copyright BS, I'm not sure when it'll happen, if ever.

-Nate
 
I guess comcast doesn't allow you to add HD cable to the basic cable package, atleast here anyway. You have to order up the $50 package full of worthless garbage stations if you want it.
 
I have the basic cable package, I pay $54 for Internet and $5 for cable since its a package deal. Just purchased an EyeTV 500 HD box for my Mac. I can receive all the local channels just fine. You have to pay extra for ESPN/HBO/Discovery but the locals are all free.

Oh, and I record it all just fine. The EyeTV is an OTA/QAM decoder so you just plug in the Comcast feed or the OTA antenna feed and hit record or schedule it through the guide.

To record the Comcast HD feed you need a QAM capable decoder, there are around 3 for the PC and only 1 for the Mac.
 
I have limited basic which is like 40 channels for 15 or something a month, cable net is 29.99 for 6 months then 50 or something. How many HD channels are you getting with the package? Sucks I can't just have limited basic and pay the five dollars extra for HD. I think I'd only watch the HD channels anyways.
 
I dont have the limited basic, ummm... just the basic. I get all the analog channels up to 99. Below are the free HD channels I get as well as a 30 or so digital and 40 music channels that I now get after plugging in the receiver.

KOMO (ABC)
KING (NBC)
KONG
KIRO (CBS)
KCTS (PBS)
KTWB (WB)
KCPQ (FOX)
 
oh well, I guess I can try calling them and say if they can't offer me HD I'd be highly interested in switching to one of their satellite competitors. If that doesn't work I guess it's netflix as an alternative. The standard cable package for 80-90 channels or whatever is like $50 so it would be 50+50+5, $105 dollars a month just for the small amount of HD channels I'd watch + internet. Totally not worth it to me.
 
Few questions. Why hasn't anyone mentioned using the DVI from the motoralla comcast box to the 2405? Also what would you guys suggest for audio? I want hidden and do not need 5.1. I just need sound to watch tv. I want to put a 2405fpw and a motorolla comcast box on my dresser in my bedroom. My guess is I will need some sort of receiver?
 
Teecee said:
Few questions. Why hasn't anyone mentioned using the DVI from the motoralla comcast box to the 2405? Also what would you guys suggest for audio? I want hidden and do not need 5.1. I just need sound to watch tv. I want to put a 2405fpw and a motorolla comcast box on my dresser in my bedroom. My guess is I will need some sort of receiver?
Click to expand...
HI know that my computer is already using that connection and there is only one for the monitor. I think that is the reason, but I am not sure. I have an audio 2 z5 soundblaster, I was wondering if I could run the audio from the comcast box through my PC sound card. Anyway..looking for some info on this too.,
thanks guys..
 
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