xp media edition and tv

So, what is the specific question?

I assume that you have a cable connection for high speed Internet. The first thing to check is the cable companies pricing plan for Internet only.

For many cable systems, the bundled rate for basic cable and broadband is lower than the broadband only rate.

Next, if you do shut off your cable connection, where will you get your TV signal feed from?

While I am content with what programming I can get from on-air broadcasting, there is a lot of cable only content that many people feel is essential.

What TV style content that is available over broadband is limited, and is often of lower image quality than your cable signal.

As to using your Media Center PC as a TV tuner:

Does your video card have a cable / antenna input?

If not, you still need some sort of box to translate the high frequency carrier into a video input that your PC does support.

Further, with many cable systems, and satellite TV systems, all of the "premium" content is scrambled. You need the providers decoder box to unscramble the signal to something your PC or TV can display.

Bottom line: If you cancel your cable TV service, the provider WILL disable the signal that comes to your outlet. There will be no video signal for your Media Center PC to receive.

Chas

The Chas is totally correct without the Cable signal your only option for TV is the Free to Air signals that may be available where you live. The further away from a major population center that you are the fewer options you'll have and even if you are in a major population center you'll still have a very limited number of channels to chose from.

Depending on when you live the Cable company is more likely to just disconnect your Set Top Box rather than physically disconnect the actual cable feed but booth are effectively the same as all you end up with is a scrambled signal that you can not watch or listen to.

Media Center only acts as a Tuner it's not a reception center as well and even then it still has limited abilities as it will only accept 1 Analog Video Capture Card and 1 Dual input Digital Capture card that gives you the Max of 3 available tuners that Media Center can support.

You'll also need a very goof Video Card with the correct Video out connector for the screen and a decent set of surround sound speakers as the computer acts as the sound decoder and just passes a video signal to the screen.

While it possible to get buy with a Dual Head Video Card the results most likely will not be what you want as this will setup 2 screens one for your normal monitor and the TV Screen another where you have to drag open windows onto to get to see them, The other option is to use your existing Video Out to feed both the Monitor and TV through a splitter and you'll want one of the powered ones not the cheap splitter cables which degrade the signal. And once you have this in place you then have to get a converter from the SVGA to whatever the Screens input is.

The other possibility is a SVGA connection but these generally split to a RGB setup of RCA connectors or a SVGA connector which may or may not feed your Screen.