[mythtv-users] Hauppauge HD PVR (A bit more info for those starved for it)

[Yeechang Lee]

Robert McNamara <robert.mcnamara at gmail.com> says:
> For those who can't wait for any little bit of info, here's a frame
> dump from a HD PVR capture @ 1920x1080 and 9 Mbit-ish.
> 
> http://www.fecitfacta.com/00000001.jpg
> 
> I think it looks excellent.

Agreed. A 9Mbps PBS 1080i stream (4GB/hour) is surely simpler to
process than a 19.2Mbps 1080i stream (7.5-8GB/hour), however. Despite
the stated 25Mbps limit of the hardware encoder, I certainly look
forward to future examples at higher bitrates.

That said, the news of the device's presence in the hands of ffmpeg
developers and others certainly gives me hope that we'll see viable
Linux (and, heck, maybe even MythTV) support from day one of
availability. I'd be interested, despite having open FireWire ports,
for the following reasons:

* Smaller filesizes.[1]
* No need to deal with the somewhat-problematic Linux FireWire stack.
* No longer vulnerable to cable companies' decisions on FireWire
  access.

I remain unsure of which way to go regarding a 1080i h.264-capable
frontend, as no one yet (to my knowledge) has yet answered the
question in the last paragraph of
<URL:http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/317259#317259>
in the context of the internal player.

[1] I hope someone is already mulling over a script that will automate
the process of playing MPEG-2 recordings over component, capturing
them via the Hauppauge device, and replacing the old with the new,
smaller, MPEG-4 version. Heck, could the device perhaps generate the
h.264 files directly from the recording files themselves? A sort of
hardware transcode engine?

-- 
Frontend:		P4 3.0GHz, 1.5TB software RAID 5 array
Backend:		Quad-core Xeon 1.6GHz, 6.6TB sw RAID 6
Video inputs:		Four high-definition over FireWire/OTA
Accessories:		47" 1080p LCD, 5.1 digital, and MX-600