HOW DO I CONNECT MY PC-TV TO MY ANTENNA OR TO SOME OTHER CONNECTION TO GET THE TV SIGNAL *INTO* MY PC-TV....

Below are a few links from Sanyo that discuss connecting regular TV sets to various connections. The general instructions provided by the links can also be used to illustrate how to connect your TV-tuner-card-equipped PC-TV system to various connections to get the TV signal INTO your PC-TV system. (This is NOT about TV OUT connections.) Just remember that your PC-TV would have an antenna connection just like on a regular TV set and your PC-TV should also have video and sound inputs just like the current "new" TV sets. So there is really not much difference and really no PC-techno-babble confusion to sort through. When making the connections, forget the PC aspect of your PC-TV system. Instead, as I say elsewhere here at Ruel.Net: "Think TV." Just look at the back of your PC and concentrate on the antenna-in connection, the video-in connection, and the audio-in (or line-in) connection.

Note that the "75ohm RF antenna terminal" on the back of the TV set is the antenna-input (or antenna-in, or antenna connection, or 75ohm terminal, or RF antenna connection, or RF connection, or other similar terminology) that you use to connect your antenna or cable TV connection to. For a TV Tuner card on a PC, you will have that same antenna-in connection on the card which would be on the back of your PC -- and that's just like the antenna-in connection which would be on the back of your TV set. So, when you look at the diagrams presented by the Sanyo TV connections links, look at the diagrams for back of the TV sets and where you see the UHF / VHF / CATV 75ohm connection, just imagine you are looking at the back of your PC and at the antenna-input connection etc. on your TV Tuner card.

If you have a good TV tuner card, you will also have a S-Video input on the TV tuner card for connecting video from the S-Video output on a DVD player or on a digital TV set-top box (for digital satellite TV or digital cable TV). Otherwise, you may have to use regular RCA cables (the ones with phono plugs for a composite connection) going from the box to the RCA video-in connection on the TV Tuner card. (This is just like the connections you would have on newer TV sets which would also have RCA connections on the back of the TV.) The RCA connection would be the typical type of video connection from a VCR to a TV for those familiar with hooking up VCRs to TV sets.

For the audio connection, you may need to connect from the RCA stereo audio outputs (left and right) on the VCR, DVD player, or digital set-top box to either (1) the stereo sound input on the TV tuner card or (2) the stereo sound input (line-in) on your PC's sound card using a RCA-phono-to-1/8"-stereo-jack adapter. Be sure that you have all the jacks and plugs plugged in all the way or else you may not get sound coming out of both of your stereo's speakers. Also when using jack adapters, if you have a bunch of them hooked up together with one on top of another (and maybe even more on top of that), you may have to jiggle it around a little bit to make sure the sound is coming out of all of your speakers.

If you have an older mono no-stereo VCR, you may also need an 1/8" mono-to-stereo-jack adapter so you can get sound on both left and right speakers (this assumes you plug only one RCA phono plug into the aforementioned RCA-phono-to-1/8"-stereo-jack adapter). You would plug the aforementioned RCA-phono-to-1/8"-stereo-jack adapter into the 1/8" mono-to-stereo jack adapter and then that all goes into the line-in sound input on your PC's sound card. Otherwise, you may only get sound for the VCR coming out of only one side of your stereo speakers.

And if you are plugging in the TV tuner card's sound and the sound from another device into the same sound input (line-in) jack on your PC's sound card, you will also need a double stereo jack (a.k.a. stereo Y-Adapter jack or stereo splitter jack) -- so you can plug both jacks into the sound card's one line-in jack. This would be for the sound from TV tuner cards that can only be connected from the outside on the back of your PC. (In contrast, there are some TV cards, like the ATI TV Wonder card, that provide the option of using an internal wire connecting the TV card to the sound card from on the inside of the PC -- similar in a fashion to an internal wire connection of a CD drive to the sound card. The ATI TV Wonder card also has its own stereo sound line-in jack for additional stereo sound input connections.)

If you have a regular TV set in the same room as your PC-TV, you may also use a splitter to connect your broadcast antenna or cable TV to get television reception on both your TV set and your PC-TV. (You can also use the splitter to connect the antenna and the cable TV to your VCR.)

Note, if you have digital cable in your home, you will most likely have a digital cable TV set-top box given to you by your cable TV company and you will most likely have that box hooked up to your family TV set in the living room. And the chances are that you may probably have other TV sets in the house hooked up to cable but those TV sets may only be getting the standard cable channels and none of the extra digital channels. So, if you want all of the hundreds and hundreds of digital cable channels to be received on your TV Tuner card, then you will have to connect a digital cable TV set-top box to your TV Tuner card (and you will be controlling the channels through the box -- just like if the box was hooked up to a regular TV set). But if you don't want to have all of those digital cable channels on your TV Tuner card, and if you can settle for just the standard cable channels from channel 2 to channel 99 (sometimes up to a maximum of 125 channels for standard cable TV), then you can try directly connecting to your cable connection without the box. Remember whichever way you go, it's all just like hooking up to a regular TV set except the "TV set" is your PC-TV with the TV Tuner card. (On the other hand, if a cable connection without the box will not work at all -- be sure to also try this with a regular TV set -- then you may need to talk to your cable TV company to ask about getting another cable box or having the other cable connections in the house turned on.)

How do I have my PC-TV hooked up to other devices and connections? Well, I use a combination of what is discussed on this page and it all works although it all looks like a spaghetti of cables and adapter plugs on the back of the PC-TV connecting the PC-TV to both a VCR and to a DVD player. Of course, you don't have to have a spaghetti of cables and adapter plugs -- unless you like hooking up a lot of devices. Now, on to those TV connection links....

To search for cables, wires, and other audio-video electronics accessories, you can also click on over to BestBuy.com, Hifi.com, GoodGuys.com, or go to your local Frys Electronics, your local Radio Shack store, or your other local electronics store to see if you can find the right cables, wires, adapters, and connectors that you need to hook up your system.

THESE LINKS ARE FROM SANYO AND ARE ORIGINALLY FOR CONNECTING REGULAR TV SETS (READ THE ABOVE PARAGRAPHS FOR HOW YOU CAN APPLY THE GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS TO YOUR PC-TV -- JUST THINK OF THE CONNECTIONS ON YOUR PC-TV TO BE JUST LIKE THOSE ON A REGULAR TV SET):

NOTICE: Ruel provides many free links seen on these pages. If you buy anything, your purchases would be from a linked third-party website(s). The links are for your convenience since everyone asks for suggestions about products. The products should come with their own guarantees and warranties. As for return policies, the various online vendors who are linked should have return policies -- look at the specific vendor information carefully and decide for yourself what card, device, or other product you may want to get.