HDTV Capture Card - Which One?

[Rakeesh]

Originally Posted by six_storm

Hey guys. Here is my current A/V setup:

32" Westinghouse LCD (720p/1080i)
Sony Dream Theater 5.1 Surround Sound
XBOX 360 (optical cable to surround sound )
Comcast Motorola HD Cable Box

So I'm going to start buying some parts to build a HTPC and I wanna start with the HD capture card. Not only am I going to use it for SD/HD recording, but my mom is going to pay me to put our old 8mm's and VHS home videos on one or two DVDs. So . . . which is the best for this situation?

Your westy probably has a PIP function in it, most westy's do. If so I would just use that to e.g. watch TV while you are using your PC at the same time. That is what I do, it works great, yet another reason I love westy TV's. I leave the DVR functions up to my tivo, it's a lot less messy that way to boot. If you want full screen, just use the remote to switch inputs.

Instead of spending money on some dodgy video capture hardware and all of the software mess that goes along with it, I would get a decent audio system. IMO a mistake people often make is that they by and large ignore the audio component by getting some cheesy "home theater in a box" setup, which does a huge injustice to the overall quality of their home theater. Dare I say audio is every bit as important as video, if not more so, as it really adds to the whole experience.

[six_storm]

Originally Posted by AlphaWolf_HK

Your westy probably has a PIP function in it, most westy's do. If so I would just use that to e.g. watch TV while you are using your PC at the same time. That is what I do, it works great, yet another reason I love westy TV's. I leave the DVR functions up to my tivo, it's a lot less messy that way to boot. If you want full screen, just use the remote to switch inputs.

Instead of spending money on some dodgy video capture hardware and all of the software mess that goes along with it, I would get a decent audio system. IMO a mistake people often make is that they by and large ignore the audio component by getting some cheesy "home theater in a box" setup, which does a huge injustice to the overall quality of their home theater. Dare I say audio is every bit as important as video, if not more so, as it really adds to the whole experience.

Uh . . . did you not read the first post? I need a video capture card so I can upload some older 8MM tapes from our old camcorder. When I get done with that project, I'm going to use the video capture card and capture some HD viewing with my HD cable box from Comcast. Now I just gotta find the right card to buy. I'm still looking . . .

[Lyme]

Originally Posted by six_storm

Hopefully there won't be any encryption/decryption problems since I'm going through the cable box.

Your cable box will do one of two things (likely B):
A: Do a pass through signal, in which case it will still be encrypted.
B: Only decrypt the channel your currently watching, and everything else is masked out.

They make IR devices that you can hook to your computer and point at your cable box to change the channels, it is cludgy, but it works.

[Mr Bigman]

I want one of those HD capture cards. Where can i get one with the rgb and hdmi?

[six_storm]

Originally Posted by Mr Bigman

I want one of those HD capture cards. Where can i get one with the rgb and hdmi?

I don't think you'll find one like that. That's what your video card is for.

I'm trying to get the parentals to go buy the capture card, CC had the Happauge 1600 for $70 or $80 this week.

[schuey74]

I bought something like this a year ago for ripping all of my old analog stuff to hard drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815255024

It only cost me $20 at the time and you just connect the device (vcr, camcorder, etc..), press play, and then record it on your PC while it plays.

For watching or recording your cable TV all you need is to connect your cable box to your PC via Firewire. You can watch and record thru VLC and the video quality of the HD stuff is light years better than watching thru your cable box + you see the complete image. It's amazing how much of the picture is cut off when running thru a set top box. VLC can be a little glitchy when recording, but there's another program (forgot the name, but I have it at home) that records TS (Transport Stream) files perfectly. You then convert the TS files to x264 and you've got reasonable files sizes with 99.99% of the quality of the original.

[six_storm]

Originally Posted by schuey74

I bought something like this a year ago for ripping all of my old analog stuff to hard drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815255024

It only cost me $20 at the time and you just connect the device (vcr, camcorder, etc..), press play, and then record it on your PC while it plays.

For watching or recording your cable TV all you need is to connect your cable box to your PC via Firewire. You can watch and record thru VLC and the video quality of the HD stuff is light years better than watching thru your cable box + you see the complete image. It's amazing how much of the picture is cut off when running thru a set top box. VLC can be a little glitchy when recording, but there's another program (forgot the name, but I have it at home) that records TS (Transport Stream) files perfectly. You then convert the TS files to x264 and you've got reasonable files sizes with 99.99% of the quality of the original.

Thanks for the link, I'll have to look into that. I dont' have a Firewire cable right now but I'll look into that as well. If it works just as you say it does, then it would be a whole heck of a lot cheaper than a capture card. But, it all depends on what Comcast let's their HD Cable Boxes do right?

EDIT - Just looked at the motherboard I will be using for my media center PC, no firewire. I did find other threads over at AVS about this process and I've seen good results. But here's my question. If this process is so "good", then why would people even bother with capture cards?

[schuey74]

Originally Posted by six_storm

Thanks for the link, I'll have to look into that. I dont' have a Firewire cable right now but I'll look into that as well. If it works just as you say it does, then it would be a whole heck of a lot cheaper than a capture card. But, it all depends on what Comcast let's their HD Cable Boxes do right?

I've got Comcast.

Originally Posted by six_storm

Just looked at the motherboard I will be using for my media center PC, no firewire. I did find other threads over at AVS about this process and I've seen good results. But here's my question. If this process is so "good", then why would people even bother with capture cards?

My best friend setup his htpc like this about a year ago. At first he tried going the capture card route - too many headaches and horrible results. We read up and after a little bit of trial and error we had his system running almost perfectly. He also does not have firewire and he had to spring for a firewire card and it worked out fine.

I think it mostly people who are afraid to get their hands dirty who go for the capture card because it can be done even with Directv, although an ethernet connection had to be used in place of firewire. Most people can barely check their email without downloading a trojan or virus and asking them to update a video driver is like asking them to come up with a new propulsion system to get us to Mars. Do you really think these people have the capability to read and learn on how to do something properly in order to avoid jumping thru a dozen DRM related hoops?

[six_storm]

Originally Posted by schuey74

I've got Comcast.




My best friend setup his htpc like this about a year ago. At first he tried going the capture card route - too many headaches and horrible results. We read up and after a little bit of trial and error we had his system running almost perfectly. He also does not have firewire and he had to spring for a firewire card and it worked out fine.

I think it mostly people who are afraid to get their hands dirty who go for the capture card because it can be done even with Directv, although an ethernet connection had to be used in place of firewire. Most people can barely check their email without downloading a trojan or virus and asking them to update a video driver is like asking them to come up with a new propulsion system to get us to Mars. Do you really think these people have the capability to read and learn on how to do something properly in order to avoid jumping thru a dozen DRM related hoops?

Hmm. I might have to head over to Monoprice and buy a good length firewire cable to test this out on my good rig. I've read nothing but good things about this method so, I'll have to give it a shot.

I'm going to start a thread about building my HTPC here around Christmas time so I'll have a good idea of what I wanna do by then. Thanks!

[six_storm]

So I bought a Firewire card and I also bought a Hauppage 1600 capture card. I tried the Firewire method first, but for some reason, nothing happens when both ends are plugged in. There are no options to turn FW on, on the cable box so I'm going to restart and make sure that it's turned on in the BIOS.

EDIT - It wasn't turned on in BIOS. Trying it again!

[six_storm]

Ok, I've went through the instructions from AVSForum three times now with the FireWire and it's a no go. It seems to record and when I try to stream with VLC, it only let's the timer go and there is no video. WTF? Anybody wanna help me with this?

[six_storm]

I've been working and dabbling with this Hauppauge HVR1600 card and it basically sucks so far. I've tried both WinTV and MCE with a coaxial and S-Video input and nothing works! None of the channels are being picked up and MCE is having a dang heart attack because I don't have a remote hooked up. WTF?

I'm really hoping that getting HD cable on your desktop/HTPC isn't this big of a PITA. I really wanna get my HTPC up and going soon but if getting my channels to my HTPC is going to be this bad, I might have to scrap it for a little while.

EDIT - Finally got it working in Vista MCE with my Comcast STB. Quality is TERRIBLE compared to what the STB does. I'm very disappointed in this card and it will probably be returned here soon. Can anybody recommend a better card?

EDIT X2 - Got the Firewire working with XP. Only digital channels work but I can only view, no recording works.