[mythtv-users] PCIe analog capture card recommendations

Wed Feb 11 17:57:37 UTC 2015

On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 12:32 PM, Larry Finger <Larry.Finger at lwfinger.net>
wrote:

> On 02/11/2015 12:35 AM, Karl Newman wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 11:00 AM, Karl Newman <siliconfiend at gmail.com
>> <mailto:siliconfiend at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     Hi all,
>>
>>     It appears that one of the tuners/encoders of my (9 year old!)
>> PVR-500 has
>>     given up the ghost (recordings are all 0 byte). I could replace it
>> with an
>>     eBay version, but given that those are going to be a similar vintage,
>> and
>>     the fact that I had to search around for a MB with PCI slots last
>> time I
>>     upgraded, I want to go to PCIe for better compatibility. I only need
>> analog
>>     SD capture. I can't use digital at all--cable has been encrypted for
>> years
>>     and I'd probably need about a 300 foot mast to pick up any ATSC
>> broadcasts.
>>     I don't need any IR support. I noticed the HVR-2250 was listed on the
>> Wiki,
>>     and it looks like this supports dual analog capture which appeals to
>> me as a
>>     complete replacement for my PVR-500 (who knows how much longer the
>> other
>>     tuner/encoder will last). So, anybody using this card for analog? Or
>> any
>>     other suggestions for cards (stability is the utmost concern).
>> Ideally it
>>     will support tuning RF NTSC that my DTA box is putting out, because I
>> don't
>>     know if that part is still working on the PVR-500 (the functional
>> tuner is
>>     using composite+stereo). I could use a single tuner card as long as I
>> can
>>     continue to use my PVR-500 as well (I know about stable device naming
>> with
>>     udev).
>>
>>     On a related note, I'll need to get a new case to accommodate this
>> card. I'm
>>     currently using a low profile Silverstone LC-11M with a PCI riser
>> card that
>>     turns the cards sideways. I no longer have the height constraints
>> that I did
>>     when I bought that case, so my options are a lot broader. Silverstone
>> or
>>     Antec or ??? Just looking for something black/dark that will blend in
>> to the
>>     living room. Doesn't necessarily need a LCD display--I hardly look at
>> it
>>     now--but it would be nice I guess. Needs to accommodate a microATX
>> board, 3x
>>     3.5 inch HDDs and a BluRay drive. My current case is relatively noisy
>> with
>>     fans but it doesn't really bother us much, however quieter is always
>> better.
>>
>>     This failure is actually not all bad--it was overdue for a
>> replacement, it's
>>     still partly functional (I was surprised I didn't have more conflicts
>> when I
>>     removed the bad tuner) and this will get me on a path to my planned
>> future
>>     setup with a single analog card tied to the STB so we can record the
>> premium
>>     channels and eventually a CableCard Ethernet tuner (*still* waiting
>> on the
>>     transcoding model SiliconDust...)
>>
>>     Thanks,
>>
>>     Karl
>>
>>
>> Ha! Well, it looks like my wallet will be staying closed for now. It
>> appeared
>> that my remaining single tuner recorded programs successfully today, but
>> when we
>> went to watch them it had recorded the wrong channel. A quick check of
>> LiveTV
>> showed my IR blaster was not firing. Further investigation showed a
>> failure in
>> my channel change script--running it on the command line revealed that
>> suddenly
>> .5 was not a valid real number for a delay and I had to change it to 0.5.
>> I
>> traced it back to a "routine" package upgrade Sunday evening that
>> upgraded perl
>> from 5.18 to 5.20 which was suddenly more picky about argument format. I
>> use the
>> same script (with different config files) for both inputs, but the reason
>> it
>> only caused one of them to fail is that one was calling the script
>> directly,
>> which returned the failure to mythbackend (No error mentioned in the log
>> at all,
>> by the way...) whereas the one that was still "working" had its error
>> swallowed
>> up by the wrapper script I use with it to work around an audio bug.
>>
>> Thanks to all for your input. Maybe if/when a reliable HVR 2255 driver
>> comes out
>> I might make the leap.
>>
>> Karl
>>
>
> Karl,
>
> I have a functional PVR-500 that I am willing to give to you for the price
> of postage. That will keep your wallet nearly closed. I just got the
> inevitable letter from Time-Warner that they are shutting down analog TV in
> my neighborhood next month. That caused me to stop running a slave backend
> that contained the card.
>
> If you are interested, send private E-mail to Larry.Finger at lwfinger.net.
>
> Larry
>
>
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>
> Larry, my provider (cogeco) gave the same notice effective last month, but
since I record from a STB I'm still using my PVR150. I tried,
unsuccessfully, to use a digital card with the STB but reverted to getting
QAM stations from the cable, with no STB, where analog has indeed
disappeared.
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