[mythtv-users] current recommendations for video capture card

Jim Shank jim.shank at gmail.com
Wed May 16 14:51:36 UTC 2007


I can't believe no one has recommended the HDHomerun from Silicon Dust for
the HD portion http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Silicondust_HDHomeRun.
Dual-tuner HDTV (QAM and ATSC) and it connects to Ethernet to boot so one
less piece of hardware to have heating up your front end or requiring
drivers. You can even control it from any PC in the house in case you want
to watch something on another PC while your Myth box isn't recording. I am
also doing something a little unusual. The quality of my standard broadcasts
isn't great so I am using OTA HD signals which are digital and much better
quality on my standard tv. Takes up more space and I am not really getting
the full advantage but it's a clear upgrade path to my HDTV.

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Nick Morrott
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 7:48 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] current recommendations for video capture card

On 16/05/07, Tiffany K <pollux1234567890 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I understand that Hauppauge has hardware encoding which is why I prefer
that
> brand.  Considering that I will be using a relatively good CPU, can I have
> good quality without hardware encoding on the card and use pcHDTV for
analog
> now.  Then when I get HD, I will not have to upgrade. Am I wrong?

If you only want a single analog tuner, then you should be fine using
either. You can get high quality analog video from a framegrabber
because you have such fine control over the encoding of the signal,
which you lose to some degree using a hardware encoder. Bruce Markey
wrote a long post about this some months ago.

If you want to be able to record 2 HD signals at once, you'll clearly
need 2 HDTV cards. As I don't have a pcHDTV card, I can't say whether
you can record HD and SD material simultaneously.

> I thought my needs were implied....watch media ;)

You still haven't stated how you are receiving your TV signals, and
whether your cable provider sends HD signals in the clear for the
pcHDTV card to use. If your HD provider encrypts all HD content, your
only solution is to ues the HDTV card for unencrypted OTA
transmissions. Note you can also use a cable box with a FireWire
output to record HD content, as long as the material is unencrypted.

-- 
Nick

MythTV Official wiki:
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