[mythtv-users] Questions about Hauppauge HD-PVR (1212)

Marc Randolph mrand at pobox.com
Tue Jul 1 17:31:59 UTC 2008


On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 11:45 AM, John Welch <jrw3319 at gmail.com> wrote:
> [...]
> Second, when I first saw the unit I was a bit concerned about how I
> would set it up because I use the component output of my STB to
> connect up to my TV, and this is my primary source of live TV viewing.
>  However, I was happy to see the "pass-through" component out of the
> device, but then a little less happy when I found that the device had
> to be on for this to work.

I've never tried splitting a component video, but I found one very
quickly for $10.
Of course, that may change how you drive your T.V.

> Lastly, I've seen some discussion about needing a fairly high-powered
> machine to play back the recordings from this device, but not a whole
> lot on the specs required just to record from the device.  To me it
> seems like you need a fairly good amount of horsepower in order to
> record as well as playback.  Are others seeing the same?  Also, what
> are people using for recording settings?

Since the HD-PVR has a hardware encoder, it is doing the hardest work
of the entire process.
Decoding the H.264 stream (for display) is the second hardest part -
typically done via CPU or hardware assistance.
Saving the stream from USB to disk is not cpu intensive at all - it
would be a distant 10th (or more).

   Marc


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