HD Capture cards

[adammills]

I'm thinking about setting up a linuxMCE system for my newly 50" plasma.   I just found out about lmce a few days ago.  I was reading a lot of the forums and didn't really see any HD capture cards in existence or worked with lmce.  Also most of the forums talking about this are a year or so old.  I don't really need it for DVR as I have a HD DVR from bright house.  I was planing on using an infrared transmitter to control the cable box and other stuff in my room.  I just want to be able to use the other features of lmce wile still watching tv and also having everything on one remote.   My original plan was to just hook my tv up to my fedora pc for movies.  I wouldn't mind putting another pc together if I can get some good use out of lmce.  If there is nothing for HD what are you guys doing for hd tvs?  I'm out of Florida and my cable provider is bright house not that that really matters.... I think?

[tkmedia]

The HDHomerun is a external, network,  dual OTA/Clear Quam tuner that is PNP with LMCE


HTH



Tim

[marrandy]

The HDHomerun is a external, network,  dual OTA/Clear Quam tuner that is PNP with LinuxMCE

HTH

Tim

I'll second that.  Keep it simple, go with HDhomerun.

[tschak909]

Guys, are you actually listening to him at all?

*smack-the-rest-of-you-upside-the-head*

Okay,

You don't want to use the internal PVR. That's fine. You can use your existing DVR.

You will need to use a USB UIRT, to control your cable box and other existing TV equipment.

You will also need:

* Xantech 286 double emitter

If you intend to digitize this signal, to bounce to other media directors in the house, you will need a supported tuner card. Right now this means Hauppauge PVR 150/250/500/USB2. We do not have support for the Hauppauge HD-PVR yet, but it will be coming in a later release.

You then need to affix the emitter nubs to each of your AV devices you wish to control.

And then make device templates for them in the web admin. The device templates tell LMCE about your devices, and in the case of AV equipment it describes the commands the device can handle, as well as any inputs it may have or provide. Your TV has inputs for HDMI 1/2/3, and/or Component, etc.. This will allow LMCE to understand what you have.

Once you make device templates, you can then use the setup wizard to select your AV devices, and tell LMCE how they are connected together, in which input ports etc. LMCE will use this information to send IR pulses to the relevant gear to switch inputs, etc.

I haven't mentioned RS232, because it's not as common, but it is a much better option if it is available on your equipment, or you can get AV equipment with RS232 ports, because LMCE can not only more reliably control these devices, but also they are bi-directional, so changes to them can be reported back to the system and dealt with automatically.

If you decide to connect the device to a tuner card, the signal can be bounced automatically to other media directors in the house. In the case of the PVR 150/250/500/USB2, just connect the s-video and rca audio from your cable box to the tuner card.

Once this is done, LMCE will generate a scenario button, which will bring up a remote to control the device on any orbiters you may wish to use, and any remotes attached to a media director will be able to control the cable box etc automatically, while sending commands to the correct devices (volume goes to amp, display power goes to TV, channel goes to cable box, etc.)

If you do not wish to use an HDHomeRun or use MythTV (aka the TV scenario), then don't use it, and simply use the LiveTV scenario, however, MythTV has many features not available on commercial PVRs and is more flexible. Any recordings made by it show up automatically in Videos, and are available to all media directors in the home.

-Thom

[jhammond]

Thom,

  Just for clarification, if you go the USBUIRT route, control the cable-box via ir and run the output into the "Video In" of your capture card, it's still possible to use mythtv, is it not?

jhammond

[krys]

Jhammond: Yes that is possible, that is how my system is currently configured. (I use mythTV to record my shows though, instead of recording them to the STB)

[adammills]

Thanks for the reply's.  You will have to give me some slack, I'm a welder who has ran some unix web servers in the past.  I'm a little misunderstood about...

You then need to affix the emitter nubs to each of your AV devices you wish to control.

And then make device templates for them in the web admin. The device templates tell LinuxMCE about your devices, and in the case of AV equipment it describes the commands the device can handle, as well as any inputs it may have or provide. Your TV has inputs for HDMI 1/2/3, and/or Component, etc.. This will allow LinuxMCE to understand what you have.

Once you make device templates, you can then use the setup wizard to select your AV devices, and tell LinuxMCE how they are connected together, in which input ports etc. LinuxMCE will use this information to send IR pulses to the relevant gear to switch inputs, etc.

What I get from this is lmce will switch the inputs on the tv to whatever might be connected to them and take control of that device.  Once the device is switched how will you control lmce? Maybe some kinda of dual monitor support? My plan once its doable is to have all my equipment connected to the lmce box.  The main thing is I want full HD quality 1080p if at all possible.

Thanks, I am getting closer to actually installing the os. lol

[tschak909]

if you use a remote or an orbiter, and the on-screen display needs to display something, it will switch the input back to the media director PC automatically.

This is why connecting to a tuner is a good idea, this way it can overlay at least an SD copy of the picture and the LMCE menu together when in this mode.

Watch the demo.

-Thom