How do I connect my Foxtel to my TV tuner card (Aver Media Digital)?

I've used a splitter to split the signal from the set-top box so that one coaxial cable goes to the decoder and the other goes to the aerial input in the back of the tuner card. I have done an all channel scan and a quick scan but the card can only pick up the free to air channels (ABC, SBS and so on.) but not Foxtel. This means the coaxial cable works but cant pick up the Foxtel Channels. My set-top box was on.

Do I use a different cable and plug it in the S-video or the extension input? I saw an article written by Michael Moore a while back and he mentioned connecting Foxtel to your TV tuner card if you have a set-top box and a subscription, which I do, but didn't mention how to connect them together exactly.

Dean Mortlock, Melbourne, VIC

You need to know a bit about how the different systems work to know what you can and can't do.

Free to air TV transmits in the VHF and UHF bands -- from below 100 MHz (the FM radio band) to a few hundred MHz. In many parts of Australia this is now broadcast not only as the old analog system, but on adjacent frequencies, as a digital signal. You need totally different receiving systems. Most TV tuner cards are the old analog system, but there are new digital ones.

The various pay TV systems broadcast via cable (in the street) or satellite. Foxtel has both (and you don't say which you have). However, all pay TV signals are encrypted, otherwise people would be able to pick them up without paying for them. That's the purpose of the set-top box -- to ensure that you're a legitimate subscriber, and decode the signal and present it as something you can watch.

If you connect the raw pay TV signal to the TV tuner card it won't see anything it can use, so it ignores it. The only way to do it is to treat the signal coming out of the set-top box as you would any other video source (such as a VCR or console game) and plug it into the video and audio in ports on the tuner card and PC. Or you can feed the RF (antenna) output from the set top box to the tuner card, so the pay TV channel is just another TV channel. Either way, you can only watch the program that the set top box is set to.

(A typical way to connect things is like this: TV antenna goes VCR then to set top box then to a 2-way splitter and splits to the TV and the PC's tuner card. Or if there's enough signal, use a multi-way splitter at the end and feed multiple TV's.)

However, you can rent a second set top box from Foxtel (I think it's around $20 a month) and put that next to the PC so you can watch a different channel to the rest of the family.

The Foxtel satellite set top box has some data ports on the back, and I'd be interested to hear from any readers who know if these can be used to feed the digital signal direct to the PC. The same would presumably apply later this year when Foxtel launches its digital cable service. This would still only allow the one channel at a time but would maintain the digital quality.

(And yes, I know that the Shopping channel isn't locked -- for some reason they want you to be able to see that even if you have your Foxtel turned off for a while.)

Paul Zucker