Which capture card to use (no tuner needed)

[robertjlee]

Hi,

I am trying to set up a fanless mini-itx media server using MythTV.

I have HDMI or SCART/S-video inputs coming from my cable box (virgin media, the only British cable supplier), and I want to be able to encode video and record it to a hard disk on the network.

I have several options for the motherboard; PCI slots are common but PCIe and mini-PCIe are also available. Which is the best capture card to use? I have looked at various Win TV cards, but they all seem to be primarily tuner cards, which I don't really need at this stage.

Any advice welcomed; thanks a lot for your help.

Robert J Lee.

[Cuppa-Chino]

Hi well from what I have seen there are also a couple of Hauppage cards

namely the PVR series and HVR series. I have seen that the PVR-150 and the HVR-1300 have hardware encoders built into them. I am also currently wondering if and what to buy to capture. (NB the hauppages are combi-cards, but if you could get Freeview reception woud give you another recording option)

HD capture from HDMI is unfortunately not possible (as far as I am aware) due to the lovely HDCP, High Definition Content Protection....

Keen to hear any recommendations....

PS:

I have just seen a HD-PVR via USB has anyone got that to work on Linux - it has component in so 1080i max?

[robertjlee]

I've been doing some research since my last post.

I was originally hoping to find a mini-itx motherboard with a built-in encoder, but they don't seem to exist (there's a Jetway board with a video-in header, but I'm told that it's a bespoke interface designed for connecting to capture cards and can't be used with any kind of regular video cable).

Hauppage make a wide range of (mostly PCI) cards; I think all their PVR and HVR cards have some sort of hardware encoder in them. The PVR-350 also has a hardware decoder and video-out connector (but I'm not sure if they make it any more).

I'd also be very interested in an HD encoder via USB. If it works, could you use multiples of these or would it saturate the USB bus's bandwidth?

[Nightwatch]

Hi,

Well I am also looking for the same thing here is South Africa. We have a digital satelite provider that comes with a set-up box that is a PVR on iets own. But I want to use MythTV with this set-up box that is possible over here.

I am looking to get a Mini - ITX solution that I have available as I supply it here locally. But my problem is I can only fit a USB capture card into it.... I was Looking at the compro devices but I don't see any support for them on Linux...

Hoping to find some info on this post to see if there is a solution to get a working capture USB stick for mythtv? HD would be wonderful but SD will do.

[Cuppa-Chino]

there is a whole host of stuff ongonig with the hauppauge usb pvr, but I am actively now looking at getting the hauppauge hd pvr - my cable company still provides a box with the "analog hole" ie component.

mythtv.org /wiki /Hauppauge_WinTV-PVR-USB2 - is the box that has been worked on a lot

[Nightwatch]

Yes I do know the Box but my problem is that is almost the same price as the computer as they are expensive over here. You see I was looking for a rather noce affordable "stick" that I can just plug in to capture the image from my set up box and then change the channels via LIRC usb transmitter/receiver which I can get also.

[Cuppa-Chino]

well many dvb and/or analog cards are based on the connexant will have a rca and/or svideo input but capture from those is "improvable"

I have an hauppauge hvr-1300 that also has a hardware mpeg2 encoder and I am not particularly impressed with the video quality, I am still trying to fiddle with it to get better results (that is why I am looking at the admittedly expensive box)

[Nightwatch]

Well that is the funny thing for me as we run a Tivo series 1 system here in South Africa also and as you know the Tivo does a pretty job on encoding

It just seems strange to give so much money out for a decent capture unit just to have MythTV running with the same capture quility as the Tivo. Well I guess MythTV is a bit more advanced as you can do a lot more with it. hauppauge is a bit expensive I beleive if you look at what you have to pay just to get a hardware encoder....? I mean it is not expensive for them to put hardware encoders on DVD recorders, Tivo's and even set up boxes that like our own HD-PVR here is Sout Africa. Just to get the card for example hauppauge PVR-150 (this is PCI tho) it will be half the price of one of our set up boxes...

I will be browsing tho to see if i can find a solution that will be a little bit cheaper, but at this stage the hauppauge is that best solution.