[mythtv-users] Plextor external USB capture device

[Brian Wood]

On Mar 26, 2006, at 8:42 AM, Bret Schuhmacher wrote:

> I have Plextor TV402U-NA - not exactly what you found, but I like it.
> Mine does MPEG compression so I can run Myth on an old laptop I had
> lying around.  I need to upgrade to a USB 2.0 card for the  
> connection to
> the Plextor, but I like it.
>
> The only problem I have is that it's not recognized at boot and I have
> to disconnect/reconnect it, then record something off channel 3 (i.e.
> force it to channel 3 using gorecord) before I see any video in Myth.
> There's probably something in the boot order of /etc/init.d stuff I
> should look at, but I don't have to do this often enough to really  
> care
> (Linux doesn't need a reboot that often).
>

I didn't have that problem with Gentoo, but Gentoo retains the  
"outdated" coldplug concept. You also have to be sure that if you are  
using Alsa as modules (as opposed to compiled into the kernel) the  
Alsa modules are loaded first, as loading the Plextor driver modules  
will not automatically load them.

On a debian-based system I did have to occasionally unplug and replug  
the USB cable from the Plextor, never did figure out why it seemed to  
work sometimes but not always.

I guess the bottom line is that the Plextors work with Myth, but with  
a few rough edges. The fact that you get hardware encoded mpeg-4 is  
great, but I would eventually like to see the ability to choose any  
of the formats the unit is capable of (though I'm not sure why you'd  
want MJPEG).

They are a nice solution when you have run out of PCI slots, or want  
quality mpeg-4 without the attendant CPU load.