Hello,

Looking for help in choosing a TV Capture card... Currently looking at Hauppauge 350 or 500.

I currently have a Tivo, and love it. Looking to build a KnoppMyth box with similar functionality. Output will go to TV(s). Looking for ability to record one or preferably 2 channels simultaneously, and still view a recorded show. This will be done using an existing computer, which has:
MSI K8N Platinum motherboard (nVidia nForce 3 250 GB based Chipset)
AMD 64 3200
1 GB RAM

Video Card is ATI Radeon 9600.

I have some linux experience, but not a tremendous amount....
Any help appreciated.

GS

The 350 is only a single channel capture card. It has video out which some use when their motherboard does not have video out. The 500 is at dual tuner (capture) card but does not support video out. You must use your motherboard for the video out to the TV.

_________________
-Roseville, Michigan USA
LinHES R8: FE/BE, FE (x2)

Why would he use the motherboard for video out? Just about any modern video card will do fine for video out.

The Radeon 9600 should work well for video out so go for the Haupp 500 if you want to have analog tuners. Keep in mind that analog tuner days are numbered with digital / QAM and HD soon becoming the standard.

I use a nForce 3 motherboard and it is supported fully for KnoppMyth.

So to clarify...
If I go with the 350, I can watch a recrded show, and record a seperate channel simultaneously... correct?

If I go with the 500, I can record 2 channels simultaneously, but would need a seperate output. The ATI 9600 SE card has SVideo out. Could I use that?

Or, is there a better card somewhere that I am not considering.

Note that I have NO interest in watching shows ON this computer (from the monitor), all output goes into my houses cable TV wiring.. (just like Tivo).

Thanks
GS

Correct


Correct

As for the output card. Your on your own. I am using the onboard output for my board and it works perfect. It is even capable of outputing HD If I had an HDTV. I am able to record 2 while watching 1 on my system.

_________________
-Roseville, Michigan USA
LinHES R8: FE/BE, FE (x2)

Any tuner card will let you do that. The only difference is that the 350 has mpeg2 decode chip and a tuner-output so you can hook the tv up to the card.

If you are going to have more than 1 tuner, it's probably not worth getting the 350 in my opinion.



Any video card with s-video should work, but I understand that there are difficulties with the ATI cards.



If your motherboard has a video-out, you can even just use that, but you'll probably need a converter to convert it to a coax signal.

A cheap nvidia card with either s-video or component out is good. Really depends on your tv.

I'm a little confused about what you are doing. You have your current system (tivo) set to go back into the house cabling? Coax, I assume.

Is that so you can watch the programs on every tv in the house? What do you do for selecting what to watch? or for setting up a recording?

I have my mythtv box sitting in the living room on my main tv, acting as both the front end and the back end. But some people set up a single back end machine and put use smaller quieter boxes by the tvs to act as front ends.

It might help if you explain what kind of video input that you have on your TV. Your MSI motherboard does need a AGP video card. You don't need a computer monitor to run Knoppmyth, in fact I even used the TV to install Knoppmyth although I use a NVIDIA FX5200 video card with S-video output so it was a breeze. it may be different with a ATI video card but it should work.

Think of an AB splitter.... It takes 1 input and splits it into two outputs.... this works in REVERSE as well. It can take two inputs and merge them into one output. One of these inputs is the cable feed, the other input is TIVO. This causes a couple of additional issues... One is that Tivo is on channel 3, which is already used on my cable feed. I use an A/V modulator to CHANGE the Tivo output to an unused channel, in my case channel 124.

Modulator used:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdet ... ak=180-318

Now any TV in the house that has cable can see Tivo just by going to channel 124. So how do you control the Tivo box? I use a Wireless extender. I place one beside the TV, and the other end of the extender in front of the Tivo unit.

Extender Used:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl ... er=180-824

The ONLY drawback of this system is that since it is only one Tivo unit, it can "send" only one show to the TV's in the house at the same time. By this I mean, if someone is watching Tivo (channel 124) on any TV in the house, then all TV's in the house are seeing the same show on channel 124.

I plan on using this same functionality to tie in a MythTV computer. I will just take the output of the computer, normally on channel 3, change it to some unused channel, and merge it into my houses cable system.

Note that you can get systems that allow MULTIPLE inputs and then feed to your whole house. This is what I do (as opposed to a simple AB splitter).

I purchased some cheap security camera (black and white, "ball style". I placed them to show our back yard, and another to show our driveway. The cameras were around $80 each. Run them into a modulator, to add a TV channel, then into a "splitter" type box, to merge them into the cable system.

You can purchase video distribution boxes that allow MULTIPLE inputs and dedicated lines to each TV, so that you are not splitting a single feed multiple times for each TV.

An example of this type of box is
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl ... er=180-782

My end result is that I have several security cameras I can watch on any TV, I go to channel 124 to see Tivo, and I WILL be able to go to channel 122 (or some channel) to see MythTV.

GS

To connect to the video input of that A/V modulator you would need to connect a S-Video to composite video converter cable from the S-Video output of the computer video card. You might even already have one that usually comes with the video card, or you could get one real cheap.

To connect to the sound input of the A/V modulator you could use the onboard sound of the motherboard or install a sound card.

I got to believe that you would lose some video and sound quality with that modulator and it would be better to directly connect the computer to the TV, but it still should theoretically work.

I think you will also need a computer monitor temporarily or directly connect the computer to the TV S-video input while you install Knoppmyth, but once it is setup then you can just connect the computer to the A/V modulator.

For this setup I would lean more to getting the PVR-500 over the PVR-350 so you can record two programs at once or watch one program while recording another. Your motherboard requires a AGP video card. Since you need a AGP video card you might as well use one with S-video out. The only reason to get a PVR-350 is if you don't have a video card with either S-video or composite output and you would be giving up a 2nd tuner. If you just want one TV tuner then get a PVR-150 and save some money.

[quote="Pain"]To connect to the video input of that A/V modulator you would need to connect a S-Video to composite video converter cable from the S-Video output of the computer video card. You might even already have one that usually comes with the video card, or you could get one real cheap.
/quote]

Aren't there cheap convertor boxes capable of converting a vga signal into coax? Then he wouldn't really need a video card.

It might be easier to go with a 350 card after all rather than try to mess with getting the sound back into the coax configuration by adding yet another piece which adds even more cost.

A 350 card and vga convertor vs a video card, a $100 convertor box, a sound card, and a pvr 500 card.

I guess either way, it's half of one and six dozen of the other.

Just how many tv's do you have in the house, gman?

No that motherboard needs a video card to even boot, and since he already has a ATI 9600 which includes a S-video out he might as well use it. It would be a waste to spend that much to get a PVR-350 and then only have one TV tuner.

The only thing I question with this system is how does he control the MythTV box in another room with just a TV? The infrared remote won't reach that far.

True



Maybe he has one of those remotes that bounce off walls and down the hallway.

I gotta admit, the design of his system has it's attractions.

Anywhere that there is a TV, I use a wireless extended which puts up the remote control signal and transmits it to the basement where I have the Tivo box. The extended is basically a two part system, both cone shaped. It takes an infra-red signal, converts it to wireless, and sends it to the other component, which converts it back to infra-red. The complete pair is $40 or so, which I need ONE set, and then for each additional TV I need an additional transmitter, around $20.

Extender Used:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl ... er=180-824

GMan

this looks really cool. how does it work? do you have to program it somehow?? i can understand that it recieves a signal from the remote, say volume, then it sends that signal wirelessly to the other receiver, how does that reciever know that you pushed volume, then how does it interface with the ir blaster and LIRC? is it complex to setup? sounds to me like you may have just figured out a way to eliminate my xbox which is going to act as my mythtv frontend.

i am planing on installing this knoppmyth on it ( i have read I need to use R5D1 so that HD streaming live tv will work, I read this here: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13801) so that it works with my backend mythtv .20 running in Dapper Drake Ubuntu. I have to use an ir blaster to be able to use the remote for the PVR-350 I have to change the channels on my cable box from TWC (time warner cable) in Milwaukee, WI. I think anyway. I haven't set it all up yet I am in the planing state. I already have Dapper running for over a year now. I have mythtv .20 all downloaded on the machine and just need to use the mythtv-setup command to set it up. I believe that the cable box is going to be hooked up to the PVR-350 composite "in" this way I am able to record any channels despite the cable box I am getting is the SA-4200 or whichever has a firewire port on it for direct channel changing and recording but the thing is is that the cable box has 5C settings on it (i have read this in a local forum) that wouldn't allow me to record the channels I want, most notably HBO!! HE HE. Sopranos, ROME, Big Love, WIRE, etc etc. SO I have to do it this way, right?.

then to maybe put the icing on the cake I was even maybe going to get a Kworld 110 (this has ATSC/NTSC and QAM tuner) and an HDTV antenna to get the HD content OTA so mythtv will be controlling that as well.

So how would this wireless thing work in my setup? If I am in my living room (this has the tv with 2 inputs, 1 is the PVR-350 coax out and the other is my Geforce 6200 s-video out-would this work?) watching something (i would be able to switch because my tv has multiple inputs, 1 coax (can coax on a tv just receive the signal without trying to tune it or is this not an input?) and the other composite or even s-vide if the coax doesn't work, it even has the new yb, blah blah for dvd player) and if I wanted to change the channel I would be either using the ( i would maybe need 2 of these wireless things-1 for kworld and 1 for pvr-350-right?) kworld remote or the pvr-350 remote then I would point that remote at the receiver and click channel up, how does the receiver tell my kworld or pvr-350 to change the channel?? oh is this all handled thru an IR "in"? i think I may have juist realized how it works, the wireless reciever just has a little clear ir thingy and I would need to just tape that to the end of the ir pad that hook in to the pvr-350, right? the the ir-blaster would send the signal to my cable box (wow, that's alot of signals being sent, he he).

it sounds like it would just be better to use my xbox as my mythtv frontend. I already have a wireless remote for it. I am under the impression that a frontend can control more than 1 card or flip bettwen them, is this true? WOW this is a lot, hopefully some1 can help here and give me some guideance.

I've been thinking about getting both a 350 and a 500 for my myth box. The box I'm going to use is my old Athlon 1.4 (asus a7n8x-e delux mb) and so probably has the processor power to encode one or two shows; however, I saw a post somewhere saying an Athlon 1.8 doesn't quite have enough power to encode 2 shows while decoding a recording. (now that I think about it, I am not sure if that was hardware assisted encoding or not).

Anyway, I got the feeling that the hardware decoder on the 350 would come in pretty handy if you were retooling your last desktop system.

BTW, Would the mpeg-2 decoder on the 350 get any use at all if you were playing back a mpeg-4 movie (was wondering if it might still take some of the burden off the CPU but really have no idea how "compatible" the two codecs are).