[mythtv-users] Absolute newbie stumped

Brad Fuller bradallenfuller at gmail.com
Tue May 19 23:31:54 UTC 2009


On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Tom <listmail at athenet.net> wrote:
> I need to decide what capture cards I want so I know what bus they plug into
> so I can start looking for a machine or motherboard & cpu combo. I  need to
> record OTA (ATSC). No cable or satellite in the cards for the present.

I'd look into the SiliconDust HD Homerun. It has two tuners and is not
a card but connected via TCP/IP. Works great in Linux (and windows).
Besides ATSC, you can capture QAM256 that's in the clear if you ever
want to capture cable.

> I want to record SD for now, but leave the way open for HD. Playback (for
> now) will be s-video, but there's a HDMI equipped television in my future.
> Not next week, mind you. But some day.

If you're going to capture ATSC, you're going to get ATSC period.
Although, you can transcode each program after it is captured
automatically in MythTV.

> I also know that software decoding is probably not the way to go; getting a
> capture card with hardware to offload that process from my CPU(s) is
> probably smart.

Since you'll be capturing ATSC, there will be no encoding (which is
what I think you mean) from analog to MPEG2.... it's already MPEG2


> I go back & forth on the subject of front-end machine in the same box as the
> back-end, or two separate machines.

I started with one machine, but it was a bit of a pain.. but clearly
doable. I'd start there.




-- 
Brad Fuller


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