[mythtv-users] PCIe analog capture card recommendations

Larry Finger Larry.Finger at lwfinger.net
Wed Feb 11 19:51:42 UTC 2015


On 02/11/2015 11:57 AM, Daryl McDonald wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 12:32 PM, Larry Finger <Larry.Finger at lwfinger.net
> <mailto: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>
>         <mailto: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
>     <mailto: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.

My master BE has a PVR-150 that I plan to use with an STB, or alternatively I 
will get a CableCard device. In any case, I had no desire to get 3 STB's to 
support a PVR-500 as well, thus I shut down the slave BE.

Larry




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