[mythtv-users] PCIe analog capture card recommendations

[Karl Newman]

On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 9:57 AM, Daryl McDonald <darylangela at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> 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.
>>
>> 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.
>
>
That's a good point, Daryl. Larry, have you considered using the PVR-500
with a STB or DTA box(es)? (would require an IR blaster or some other
method to change the channel on the box). Not that I wouldn't appreciate
having a backup device, but it would be better for you to use it if it was
still useful to you.

Karl
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