How do you get a Hauppauge TV card to except a signal directly from your TV?

Are you sure your TV has composite and/or S-video OUTPUTS? Usually these are TV inputs only.

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The Hauppage cards are illustrated here:

http://www.hauppauge.com/

I am assuming that you are using something like the HVR-1600. This is not equipped with composite video input jacks. If you want to read the signal coming OUT of your TV set (as opposed to your cable, satellite box or digital cable box) you will need an RF Modulator:

http://hometheater.about.com/od/hometheaterdoityou...

You connect your composite TV outputs to the modulator, and connect the modulator's 75-ohm Antenna Out to your Hauppage card's antenna input.

Although this will work for regular (analog) TV that you receive from your cable provider, please note that, normally, the TV's composite outputs will **not** work if your TV is receiving its signal via an HDMI cable (from a DVD player or a set-top box).

Also, composite cables, even without the RF modulator in the circuit, will not give you the best picture, and will only give you stereo sound (not multi-channel).

The normal process for connecting a Hauppage (or similar) TV receiver is to split the 75-ohm cable that goes into your TV's antenna input, and run one side of the splitter output to the TV and the other side to the Hauppage card.