[mythtv-users] current recommendations for video capture card

[Russ W. Knize]

> Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote: Tiffany K wrote:
>> System specs:
>>
>> -ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI ATX Intel
>> Motherboard(2 PCI slots, 3 PCIe slots)
>> -Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
>> -C6 or Ubutnu
>> -Software: MythTV or LinuxMCE
>>
>> I am looking for a capture card that is reliable, known for excellent
>> quality,  and easy to install(linux/driver support).
>>
>> I may upgrade to HD in the future, so I would prefer an HD card.
>> However I do not want to sacrifice the characteristics in the previous
>> paragraph. I would also prefer to be able to record one show while
>> watching another. Again, however, I do not want to sacrafice the
>> characteristics in the previous paragraph. I would rather have excellent
>> quality now and upgrade later to support dual channels and HD.
>>
>> I have read tons of docs and forum posts on mythtv and linuxmce sites
>> regarding this subject. I want to be sure I am basing my decision on
>> the most up-to-date info.
>>
>> I see a ton of info on the Hauppauge brand but not much on pcHDTV. This
>> is surprising since pcHDTV seems to be dedicated to Linux and
>> open-source. Is  pcHDTV not a good brand? Or am I wrong on my
>> assumptions?
>
> You are comparing apples and oranges. Both Hauppauge and the pcHDTV
> cards are good products, but they are different. The PVR cards are for
> analog reception with hardware MPEG encoding, the pcHDTV cards are for
> ATSC reception, or NTSC as a frame buffer using software encoding.
>
> It all depends on your needs.

I have two pcHDTV HD-3000 cards.  They can receive both ATSC/QAM (HD) and
NTSC (SD).  They have no encoder, so the SD portion is just a dumb "frame
grabber" with no audio support (you need a sound card with an audio input
to make use of it).  I also found the SD picture quality to be poor.  Not
much interference, but very low contrast and color.  Perhaps this is
tunable?  For HD they work fine, though I have yet to get Myth to receive
QAM using this card.  Getting the channels setup is a pain.

I'd get a PVR-150 or 500 for now and add an HD solution when you really
need it.

Russ