SlingBox

[1audio]

HD capture is a major weakness and no HD capture cards for Linux exist. In fact the only HD capture stuff out there uses either SDI or HDMI  and the HDMI card only works on windows and 720P and non-hdcp sources. The Sling HD gives cell phone video quality or worse than some newer phones. They have announced a new HD box for delivery in 9 months. There are pro boxes for lots of money that capture to MPEG2 and H.264 but they are SDI in and converting to SDI is expensive.

I have a Hava box and can make it available to a developer for a serious integration effort. They may be working on a newer version as well.  However for all the HD noise the mpeg chip is only DVD standard definition quality output. So you may as well use a normal capture card.

MythTV seems to have the transcoding and other hooks to make a slingbox type of gadget inside LMCE.

[ddamron]

1audio,

That's my point, there's virtually NO HD Capturing devices available (at a reasonable price)..

I've been reading up on the Hava products..  Even if they are DVD quality, at least it's a method of getting a component OUT (back) into digital form!

I'm not familiar with lmce enough to tackle that, but maybe soon..  I personally think that is a HUGE feature..  and it seems the Hava is, so far, the best fit.

All we really need to do is capture the stream and save it to disk...  Shouldn't be THAT hard should it?

Maybe I can do it in Ruby! (heh, wouldn't THAT be cool eh?)

Regards,

Dan

(PS, I'll do more reading on it and see if I can work with it..)

[krys]

Ddamron,
did you run into a dead end, or just lose interest. I like the potential that this product has to stream my STB content in HD.
http://www.myhava.com/products.html
-Krys

[nite_man]

Using VDR, how would you CAPTURE a Component Signal?
(That's where the Hava would come in handy)

We have a vdr plugin for that in development (you obviously need a card with component-in on-board too) that would be used to capture the output of a UK Sky TV STB or any other external video source. That source then appears as a special channel in the TV channel list. Then a PC or an MD on the network can request a stream from that source and watch it (or record it). All recording is done at the Core. Multiple PC's or MD's can watch the stream concurrently.

There is a VDR plugin for Sky. Have you try it?

[totallymaxed]

Using VDR, how would you CAPTURE a Component Signal?
(That's where the Hava would come in handy)

We have a vdr plugin for that in development (you obviously need a card with component-in on-board too) that would be used to capture the output of a UK Sky TV STB or any other external video source. That source then appears as a special channel in the TV channel list. Then a PC or an MD on the network can request a stream from that source and watch it (or record it). All recording is done at the Core. Multiple PC's or MD's can watch the stream concurrently.

There is a VDR plugin for Sky. Have you try it?

We now use the IPTV plugin for vdr and a SkyBoxPlayer device in LinuxMCE to do this. We also use the SkyBoxPlayer for situations where we are not capturing the output of the Sky box(s) but are controlling the Sky Box and then using a video Matrix switch to route the video to any number of screens.

Andrew

[massabuntu]

Using VDR, how would you CAPTURE a Component Signal?
(That's where the Hava would come in handy)

We have a vdr plugin for that in development (you obviously need a card with component-in on-board too) that would be used to capture the output of a UK Sky TV STB or any other external video source. That source then appears as a special channel in the TV channel list. Then a PC or an MD on the network can request a stream from that source and watch it (or record it). All recording is done at the Core. Multiple PC's or MD's can watch the stream concurrently.

There is a VDR plugin for Sky. Have you try it?

We now use the IPTV plugin for vdr and a SkyBoxPlayer device in LinuxMCE to do this. We also use the SkyBoxPlayer for situations where we are not capturing the output of the Sky box(s) but are controlling the Sky Box and then using a video Matrix switch to route the video to any number of screens.

Andrew

What is a SkyBoxPlayer  and how you turn the Sky Output in a stream?

[totallymaxed]

Using VDR, how would you CAPTURE a Component Signal?
(That's where the Hava would come in handy)

We have a vdr plugin for that in development (you obviously need a card with component-in on-board too) that would be used to capture the output of a UK Sky TV STB or any other external video source. That source then appears as a special channel in the TV channel list. Then a PC or an MD on the network can request a stream from that source and watch it (or record it). All recording is done at the Core. Multiple PC's or MD's can watch the stream concurrently.

There is a VDR plugin for Sky. Have you try it?

We now use the IPTV plugin for vdr and a SkyBoxPlayer device in LinuxMCE to do this. We also use the SkyBoxPlayer for situations where we are not capturing the output of the Sky box(s) but are controlling the Sky Box and then using a video Matrix switch to route the video to any number of screens.

Andrew

What is a SkyBoxPlayer  and how you turn the Sky Output in a stream?

The SkyBoxPlayer is a LinuxMCE device we ship with Dianemo. The only way to turn a Sky box's analog output into a stream is with a video capture card.

Andrew

[wierdbeard65]

The SkyBoxPlayer is a LinuxMCE device we ship with Dianemo. The only way to turn a Sky box's analog output into a stream is with a video capture card.

1) Is it generally available to the community?
2) Which capture card do you use?

Ta!

[massabuntu]

Let me understand,
You capture directly the rf cable of the antenna in a DVB-S and decode the signal or you capture the S-Video/Component or HDMI output of the STB? Like with a Hauppauge Card?

Anyone have experienced HAVA? How it's the qualty, and there's the annoing delay between the real source and the mpeg2 stream as the hauppauge for example?

Thanks,
Martino.

[totallymaxed]

The SkyBoxPlayer is a LinuxMCE device we ship with Dianemo. The only way to turn a Sky box's analog output into a stream is with a video capture card.

1) Is it generally available to the community?
2) Which capture card do you use?

Ta!

Yes the SkyBoxPlayer will be available in 0810

We do not use capture cards very often as the quality of captured video is not that wonderful and the 'lag' is also annoying when trying to watch/control a live stream. But if we do we have used PVR150/250/350 cards...but all of these are now getting very hard to obtain as Hauppauge have discontinued manufacturing them. So I would suggest looking at this newer Hauppauge card;

http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-HVR-4000

This card now has good support for all of its features apart from the analog TV tuner... but would need updated drivers from v4l and also ideally a new device template so that it was PnP.

All the best

Andrew

[wierdbeard65]

Yes the SkyBoxPlayer will be available in 0810

You are a true gentleman I take it that it is a device specification to control the Sky box (obvious question, but just needed to check!)

We do not use capture cards very often as the quality of captured video is not that wonderful and the 'lag' is also annoying when trying to watch/control a live stream. But if we do we have used PVR150/250/350 cards...but all of these are now getting very hard to obtain as Hauppauge have discontinued manufacturing them. So I would suggest looking at this newer Hauppauge card;

http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-HVR-4000

This card now has good support for all of its features apart from the analog TV tuner... but would need updated drivers from v4l and also ideally a new device template so that it was PnP.

Thanks, I'll see if I can find one. I'm not too concerned about analog TV tuner, the idea is to use this for my Sky STB and get some DVB-S cards (and a Quad LNB) for the free channels. I know that means I will only be able to record / watch one encrypted channel at a time, but it sure beats what I have now!

[massabuntu]

The HVR-4000 has the annoing "lag",as far as you know?

[totallymaxed]

Yes the SkyBoxPlayer will be available in 0810

You are a true gentleman I take it that it is a device specification to control the Sky box (obvious question, but just needed to check!)

SkyBoxPlayer is a complete device with DCE plugin etc....it can use either a dedicated RF2 control interface or IR Blasting.

[totallymaxed]

The HVR-4000 has the annoing "lag",as far as you know?

Well we have not tested an HVR-4000 so I cant comment on 'lag'...but on the basis that its a later design I would guess that its performance in that area will be improved. Its certainly a flexible card for the money.

Andrew

[wierdbeard65]

it can use either a dedicated RF2 control interface or IR Blasting.

Sorry to appear stupid here - I was under the impression that there wasn't a method of controlling a Sky box other than IR Blasting. Could you explain RF2?