Hi,

Just wanted to ask a couple of questions on how this is supposed to work. All help is much appreciated. Oh, and im a little confused so there will be a few guru's that will laugh.

I'm getting foxtel IQ2 HD and know it's digital where the older foxtel is analog or does it still transmit analog and digital?

With Foxtel IQ2 what is the best card? I was thinking hauppage 2200? What would be the best connection to go into the card? Scart? S-video?

Will foxtel appear in the TV guide for win 7?

The reason for win 7 is because i really don't want to go through the registry changes through Vista.

Thanks for your help.

DallasF , , Australia

Too many people are expecting too much from their Foxtel boxes. (That's a pay TV box here in Australia.)

I've answered this question numerous times before.

The Foxtel IQ box is designed to output its programs in two ways:

1. Via various video and audio ports, plugged directly into a TV, a monitor, or one of the wireless AV transmitters. (This is the best quality signal)
2. To a TV set via an inbuilt analog TV modulator. (This is a lower quality signal.)

The Foxtel IQ2 box, however, has a higher quality video output (HDMI digital) but does not have an RF TV output (analog or digital).

But regardless of what outputs they have, there's NO WAY OF CONTROLLING THEM FROM A PC. There is no way of tuning them from a PC or even getting the raw data signals. The best you can do is feed the video and audio out to the PC via a capture card (such as a TV tuner card) in real time.

It doesn't matter if you have XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Mac OSX, you can't control the Foxtel IQ boxes. You can't get a program guide on your PC.

But what you CAN do is use Foxtel's on-line web site to see the program guide, schedule programs to record on your IQ box and even download programs to the PC (though it will chew up your broadband allowance.)

I have the feeling you won't believe me, so please look elsewhere.

Paul Zucker