Anyone use acapture card to watch tv on there pc?


donburkard

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I have some basic questions about watching tv on your pc.

 

1.  Does anyone make a capture card that can do more than 125 channels?  I currently have like 500 channels and i want to be able to get them on my pc.

 

2.  Anyone know anything about comcast digital boxes?  i tried calling comcast to find out if i could link the box to the card so i cans still access all the channels and guides and everything but the tard on the other end had no clue what i was talking about.

 

3.  What software do you guys like best? Beyondtv, mythtv, etc.

 

Thanks guys.

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If you have 500 channels, you have digital cable... .so you need a digital tuner.... so you be screwed.  You also may have analog channels too, and those can be captured with off-the-shelf stuff, and most non-movie channels are usually unscrambled.

 

FCC regs require the local channels to be broadcast in the clear on digital cable... so you will get 4... maybe even 6 or seven channels.  All others will be scrambled.

 

There are no digital cable tuners for the PC that will work with scrambled channels.  There is one cable-card compatible digital tuner card out there, but you can't buy it... it is only sold to systems integrators.

 

The best you can do, is use a cable box with firewire out, and some DVHS emulation software to make your PC look like a DVHS recorder.

 

Alternatively, use a Tivo and tytools type software to pull the files off of it.... but to do that with a hi-def Tivo requires some serious skills with a soldering iron.

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I use BeyondTV with a Hauppauge 500 (this card is dated/obsoleted, analog only so standard def only) (and BeyondTV Link on the other PC's to link to the one capturing the signal)

 

It is in my basement, and the PC/w the tuner card is connected to a DirecTV receiver, and I use a usb-uirt to changed the channels on the DirecTV receiver.  The usb-uirt connects to the pc via usb and has an IR dongle which is tapped over the DirectTV receiver IR input.  I had to run the usb-uirt through a setup program to teach it how to run with the DirecTV receiver.  Some tuner cards have a port for the IR dongle directly, which removes the need and the "iffyness"/setup of the usb-uirt.  Some folks use a serial connection to a dish receiver for changing channels.

 

My setup is a bit odd in that the DirecTV receiver drives the tv via it's coax out, while its s-video out and RCA-sound-out goes to the tuner card in the htpc.  So whatever is playing on the tv is also what's playing/recording on BeyondTV on the htpc.  This setup provides TV viewing in three total rooms (2 via BeyondTV link) as well as the recording capability, but only one channel-choice-at-a-time is possible.  (Our primary TV is elsewhere and has its own receiver.)  I can get away with this only because we don't have any kids, so it is only my wife and I.  Occassionaly we may bump heads, usually if I am riding the stationary bike and watching the TV in the basement and she wants to watch live TV in her office, which she does via BeyondTV link to the basement PC.

 

BeyondTV handles recordings well, but we just point our PC's directly to the unRaid server and watch recordings and our ripped DVD's with windows media player and/or PowerDVD.

 

When I first run BeyondTV, I was using Comcast, so the setup is similiar.  A cable box is a bit easier to configure than a dish receiver as far as BeyondTV goes.  BeyondTV is the only commercial software I've used for this, previously I had a short stint of streaming TV via free stuff but on a client pc, getting it to change a channel was problematic.  I've always liked BeyondTV as its setup is fairly straightforward.  However, if I were to buy today, I would seriously consider Sage TV.  As I understand it, BeyondTV leads Sage tv in user interface and setup, but lags in features and functionality.  I think it is safe to say that BeyondTV is better suited toward the more technically challenged whereas those willing to trade that for more features/functionality should look at Sage TV.  I don't know anything about MythTV.

 

Recording premium HD channels in HD is at best, almost impossible.  If you consider BeyondTV, look into their bundled deals, as they sometimes are worthwhile.  http://store.snapstream.com/bundles-sidebar.html

 

Before you buy, you've got to figure out:

1) SD, HD, or both... realizing HD premium channels is probably not gonna happen, although you can probably stream/record those signals in standard definition, but don't take my word on that.

2) Figure out how many other PC's you will want to stream live tv to.

3) Figure out how many simultaneous channels you need - if you have 3 pc's that 3 different people will want to watch a different show each, you'll need 3 tuner cards and 3 cable/dish settop boxes, and if you want to record a 4th channel too, add another tuner card and settop box, plus all the cables and connectors/splitters, etc.

4) A number of tuner cards now handle both digital and analog which keeps your future options open.

5) Before you decide on a tuner card, make sure you've figure out how you will get your channels changed on a cable box.  Some tuner cards you can connect an IR dongle directly to it and they come with it, others have the connectiong, but don't come with it and you have to buy it separately, others have neither and you have to buy additional stuff, such as a usb-uirt to make it happen.  So one less expensive tuner card may cost you more because you need extra parts.

6) I think all the commercial products are a little bit challenged on running multiple tuners that are each connected to a separate settop box.  Historically, BeyondTV used to only support one tuner, but for quite awhile, it has supported multiple tuners, but when it first supported multiple tuners, it would not support using the same technique more than once to change a channel on a cable box - one tuner would have to use a direct connected IR blaster, another would have to use a usb-uirt, the third, a serial connection, for example.  I'm not sure where it stands now in this regard.

 

Do a lot of reading/surfer before you leap.  Start with the BeyondTV forums and the Sage TV forums.  http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/  http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/  Look into MythTV as well.

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OH MY FREEKIN GOD!!!! what a crock!  What the hell is wrong with these companys?  Do they not talk to each other or the public or anyone at all?  This seems to me to be a pretty common thing now a days, tv on the pc.  Why the hell hasnt comcast or direct tv or dish or all of them come up with a way to do this?  they would make money off it. i guarantee it.  Or the computer industry?  Eventually we are all going to be watching and listening straight from computers so why the hell dont they just pull the freekin plug already and get it done!  some one should really work on that.

 

ok im off the soapbox now. sorry.

 

Anyway,  JRS and BubbaQ, yea that isnt even worth it.  My goal is to be able to get rid of all this extra crap and just have my pc's, my unraid servers, my reciever (in the theater and familyroom), and the tv's or projecter.  no more cable boxes, no more dvd players, no more cd players, none of the extra crap.  Complete integration.  Man that sucks.  Thanks for the imput anyway.  I really appreciate it.

 

Also BubbaQ, you mentioned the firewire port on the comcast box.  What is that going to do for me?  What does the dvhs emulation do? im not sure what you mean by dvhs.  im a dummy when it comes to this stuf for the most part.  Shouldnt a firewire, or usb port for that matter have a two way connection?  shouldnt this give you the ability to control the box just like you do with the ir remote while also giving you the picture and sound threw the same port, or even the regular output for that matter?

 

 

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Comcast would LOVE to give you the ability.  You are forgetting the paranoid media companies that hate piracy.  THEY are the ones that control the show.  THEY don't want you to be able to record their programming.... ever heard of the broadcast flag, copy-inhibit, and a little thing called DRM?

 

This was supposed to be solved by the CableCARD... but fat chance.  The media companies have intentionally obstructed  that for YEARS.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CableCARD#Issues

 

DVHS = Digital VHS.  Google it, and you'll find some drivers for Windows.  Just to prove I could, I recorded a couple of Hi-Def things off cable to my laptop over the Firewire port.  But if a program has copy-inhibit set, the firewire port is cut off.

 

What most people do, is use Tivo, and then various tools to get the program off Tivo to the PC (such as Tivo-To-Go or TyTools) and then you have to decrypt it, which as of last year, the encryption was cracked and Tivo has not changed it... so several tools out there will do it.  Or even DirectShow Dump.

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Don't forget cable companies and the satellite companies sell you a subscription to their DVR boxes so they make out as well and the consumer has to live with it. 

 

One thing though if you get an HD card like the DVICO Fusion HDTV 7 that does qam tunning http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/ENG/products/HDTV7DualExpress.aspx you can try it with your cable company.  Some people have been lucky and their cable companies haven't encrypted their HD (premium)content.  Now that could change though. 

 

I have an older version of this card running MCE and it does the trick for over the air broadcasts.  I then have 2 analog cards to record standard cable. 3 years ago this was great because there where not a lot of HD channels now it's becoming a problem.  I was excited about the cable card but it's stalled and you'll notice not even newer HDTV's have the slot for one.

 

You're best bet would be to check out http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=7638040175e033706a5b2ccd05485f3d&f=26 they are all over the HTPC and can maybe help you find some type of resolution that works for you.

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I'm a sageTV user and I'm pretty happy with it, especially since I bought a HD extender.  We watch TV exclusively off Sage now and the WAF is pretty high.  UnRaid stores everything I tune and the only issue I have is when the HD is spun down (half a second hiccup in the first few seconds of recording). 

 

It supports a bunch of ways to tune TV.  I use an old Hauppauge 250 but I also bought a HDHR to tune OTA broadcasts.  That's about 8 channels here in snowy Montreal... Frankly though, I only use the tuner for french TV, the news, kids show and things I don't really care about.  Everything else is downloaded through torrent.  I could tune it but my 250's quality is so-so and it feels easier this way.  Totally dependent on me though, light years beyond the wife.  Gotta train the kids soon ;)

 

I guess what I'd do in your case is a sage server, USB-UIRT to control the digital set-top box and a Hauppauge HD-PVR to grab it.  Add a "HD Theater" box on each TV and your set. 

 

Gog

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Others may not realize how far SageTV has come, in dealing with HD playing and recording.  They partnered with Hauppauge in support of their new HD-PVR (mentioned above, shown and sold here), that gets around the encryption barriers by recording the component output of the digital boxes, what is called the "analog hole" I believe.  (I'm in no way an expert in these things, can't possibly afford them!)

 

And the new HD extenders, the STX-HD100 (reviewed here) and STP-HD200 HD Theater (here), have become the preferred way to 'drive' your TV's, as they themselves handle all of the resource needs of your HD stuff.  You no longer need high end CPU's and graphics cards, even on the SageTV server managing this for all of your TV's and stations.  The extenders and placeshifters provide the same screen menus and controls as on the computer, using your remote control, with full access to your music collection, recordings, 'live TV' channels, photo collections, and online content such as Youtube videos, the weather, and a wide collection of podcasts, both full video and audio only.

 

And with the cheap placeshifter software clients, you can play back any where in the world you go.  It automatically/dynamically adjusts the bitrate according to current conditions between your connections.  Transcoding for placeshifters does require much more CPU horsepower in the server though.  You can watch your local ESPN channels on your laptop in Paris, and as far as I have heard, it looks pretty good!

 

Of course, it's first generation, so there are problems, snafus, things to improve...  It is also not cheap!

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"I guess what I'd do in your case is a sage server, USB-UIRT to control the digital set-top box and a Hauppauge HD-PVR to grab it.  Add a "HD Theater" box on each TV and your set. "

          What,                                                    What,                                                                                                                      and what?

 

Explain please. ;D

 

Thanks by the way.

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LOL

 

I'm basically restating Rob's post here but here goes.

 

You need a server with Sage with a capture device and a set top box on each of your TV.

The server can be fairly old if you don't do any transcode.  I have an old AMD 2500+ with a gig of RAM.

 

The Hauppauge HD-PVR will grab the component output of your cable set-top box.  The USB-UIRT (http://store.sagetv.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SOS&Product_Code=UIRT&Category_Code=HD) is an infrared emitter that will change the channel on the set-top box.

You can have more than one of these HD-PVR to record more than one channel at a time.

 

The HD theater is the fancy name for the STP-HD200, the curent Sage set-top box.  It's a box that talks to the sage server through your home wired network

 

I have one old Hauppauge MVP and one STX-HD100.  I'm very happy with the STX-HD100, I imagine the 200 is at least as good.

 

Not cheap by any count but I'm happy with the result and with all my DVD and CD ripped, accessible through the same interface (OK, plus sonos for sound only...  I think I might need deGeeking therapy) throughout the house it's pretty neat.  And I had the advantage of building this over the years.  My first setup was somewhat less userfriendly ;)

 

On the other hand, it's never finished and once in a while I get to explain my wife how to reboot a server over the phone...  YMMV

 

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