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| Future-proof capture card recommendation needed http://forums.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15002 |
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| Author: | poflynn [ Sat Apr 21, 2007 7:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Future-proof capture card recommendation needed |
Hi all, Be nice, this is my first post and yes, I'm a newbie.... I am about to venture into the world of KnoppMyth and am pretty excited, but I want to be certain I get the right h/w from the beginning. My question is easy, I hope: I want a card that will work on today's analog cable as well as the new digital TV standards that are soon(ish) to be launched in the US, as that's where I'm based. I also like the idea of having a capture card and TV Out (HD, SD, whatever) in one card although that is not a high priority. Honestly right now I don't have a HD TV and I'm not going to get one within the next year or two, but eventually I will and I would prefer not to be switching cards for that or when my cable goes digital. Thanks a lot! Paul |
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| Author: | thornsoft [ Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:42 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Any of the HD capture cards will work fine for pulling unencrypted channels from cable. Some are digital only, some are digital/analog. You'll find that "soonish" is here already though. You'll have DTV/HD versions of NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, PBS and others, "in the clear" on cable (providing that they're not in a war over money with the company that owns the local affiliates, but that's largely cleared up now). Other "digital cable" stations will show up too, in standard-definition digital. You may find that you don't actually need to bother with the analog portion of the card. But if you do, I think the PCHD5500 and K-World 110 (maybe replaced now by the 115) will do the trick. The K-World is tricky to set up, look for threads here in the forum, including Marc Aronson's new thread about the 115. It's an unbeatable deal, often for $30 AR. I think that's what I paid for mine. I've got a PCHD3000, Air2PC 5000, and KWorld 110 in my box, all recording OTA (antenna) DTV. On a typical thursday night, I'm recording about 8 hrs of primetime HD programming. I have no need for cable. Myth/KnoppMyth rules. |
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| Author: | poflynn [ Sat Apr 21, 2007 11:05 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Thanks for the quick reply |
Good point regarding OTA, I have considered dumping my cable completely. I have heard though that reception isn't great where I live (Dublin, CA) due to the hills around me. Anything that's 'tricky' to set up I will be skipping I'm afraid, I have bare bones linux skills and not much time. Will look into the PCHD5500 though, thanks! |
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| Author: | Too Many Secrets [ Sat Apr 21, 2007 11:19 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I was able to get the Kworld going without much hassle and I still don't know much about linux. (Thank goodness for the linux tips page on the wiki.) The Air2PC cards can be found on ebay regularly, that's where I got mine and it works as good as the Kworld. The Air2PC only does OTA where the KWorld is supposed to do QAM as well (but I haven't tried). If your looking for a SD & TV out card, look into the Hauppauge 350, it might fit. Just do a search on the forum and you'll likely find all the info you need. As a footnote, I noticed that the Kworld-110 wasn't on the wiki (what card do you use), so I added it. Others might want to add to it as they see fit. |
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| Author: | poflynn [ Sun Apr 22, 2007 2:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Hauppauge 350 |
Yeah, this was top of my list purely because it seemed it would probably be the easiest/quickest to get working, but am I losing anything by not having QAM etc? |
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| Author: | Too Many Secrets [ Sun Apr 22, 2007 4:26 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
You don't really know what you can get OTA until you try. You can look at antennaweb and see what you might get. I don't use QAM yet, but am looking into playing around as soon as I can get the cable co to come and 'survey' my property (that's another story). But you'd be surprised how many TV programs you can accumulate just OTA. If I could just get FSN OTA I'd be a happy guy... 
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| Author: | jmairs [ Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:26 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
I have a Hauppauge 250 card and its been "ok" with SDTV. I haven't been thrilled watching NHL hockey compared to my DirecTV TIVO. I thought the 250 was cheaper than the 350, is the 350 better? John |
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| Author: | EvilTwin [ Mon Apr 23, 2007 6:36 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
The 350 is more expensive and adds "best of breed" dedicated SDTV output, however, his doesn't really cut it if you're looking for a "future-proof" solution since it's limited to SDTV resolutions. |
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| Author: | poflynn [ Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:41 pm ] |
| Post subject: | 350 & SD |
Yeah, I realized this after comparing the kworld with it. Although I don't have a HD TV yet it's probably only a matter of time so I might just try to get to Frys & grab the KWorld, along with some other, plain & cheaper TV out card.. Thanks for the replies folks, Paul |
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| Author: | thornsoft [ Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:05 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Rather than a tv-out card, I'd recommend just going DTV/HD for capture, and output via s-Video to a TV, or VGA/DVI to a widescreen computer monitor. A $200 widescreen monitor 20" or so, makes a decent "poor-man's HDTV". And when you're ready for a big TV, use the monitor on your computer. |
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| Author: | marc.aronson [ Tue May 01, 2007 9:11 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
If you use the kworld card (110 or 115), there is a myth wiki article that explains how to set it up -- http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Kworld_ATSC_110 Somebody commented that they weren't certain that the Kworld supports QAM. It does. The SD / Analogue recpeption is OK -- if interested, see my notes on this at http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 8558#88558 Marc |
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| Author: | poflynn [ Tue May 01, 2007 11:06 am ] |
| Post subject: | KWorld Wiki |
I did buy the KWorld 115 as it seemed too good a deal to pass up. Unfortunately I didn't get past the first line in the wiki - cd /[kernel source directory]/Documentation/dvb/ I don't believe I have the kernel source; I just burned the KnoppMyth CD and installed just that, nothing else, I think it doesn't come with the source, right? I even did a ls -R for get_dvb_firmware or whatever that script was and it doesn't seem to be anywhere on my HD 
Also, one other question: In the knoppMyth setup should I be creating a 'Capture Card' entry and then doing the modifications in that wiki or should I not define any capture card via the menus and only do what's in the wiki? Thanks, Paul |
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| Author: | marc.aronson [ Tue May 01, 2007 9:05 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I should probably clarify a bit. That wiki is for a generic mythtv install. There are several steps you can skip since you are using knoppmyth. In R5D1 do the following: 1. shutdown the myth backend 2. Execute steps 4.1 & 4.2 from that wiki article. 3. Run mythsetup (ALT-s) to create the tuner card and assocaite it with a source. 4. exit setup 5. restart backend Unfortunately, on your next reboot one of the drivers you need will not load automatically. To fix this edit the file /etc/init.d/KnoppMyth-tv and add the following lines towards the end of the file Code: #
# Added for kworld 115 # modprobe saa7134 modprobe saa7134-dvb # # End of changes for kworld 115 # echo "} Done" The line that reads echo "} Done" is already present in the file -- I incldued it to show you where to place the additional lines. |
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| Author: | poflynn [ Tue May 01, 2007 11:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Getting closer... |
I added the lines as specified, now at least the card seems to be recognized ("dmesg | grep firmware nxt" gets results as expected in another thread) plus I can select "Watch TV" although it fails to get a lock (used to not even get that far). One question: Which card type should I select? pcHDTV, DVB or what? Those and others list "KWorld 110" under "probed info". Last question: When I do a channel scan they all timeout, however, I do get a high signal strength % which I never got before so I'm guessing it's "hearing" something. Right now I have comcast digital cable, what "Frq Table", "ATSC Modulation" etc options should I select on the channel scan screen? I have tried most variants w/o success
Thanks all! I have made some progress thanks to you all. |
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| Author: | marc.aronson [ Wed May 02, 2007 12:25 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
1. Use card type of "DVB". 2. The kworld 115 has two coax input connectors -- I had to use the bottom one to get it to work for digital cable. 3. I don't have that channel scan screen because I am on R5D1 -- hopefully someone else will jump in with a good answer. When I did my frequency scan using the external scan utility, I used the configuration file named "us-Cable-Standard-center-frequencies-QAM256" -- perhaps that will help? 4. Probably worth looking at this list of working cable layouts before you go to the effort of building your own: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Wo ... ble_layout Hope this helps. Marc |
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