HDTV Capture Cards

[archived]

How many HDTV Capture Cards can the Pluto / Myth installation support.

For example, if I wanted to build a system that could support streaming HDTV (or other video source) to 4 TV's in the house can this system do this?

[archived]

The only one I've seen is the pcHDTV-3000.  See:
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295

We haven't tried it in our office, but it says that it works with MythTV, which is the PVR in Pluto.  Unfortunately, the cards won't be legally sold in the U.S. past this summer when a new law comes into effect requiring that devices must respect the 'do not copy' flag in hdtv broadcasts.

[archived]

Thanks for the reply.

How many capture cards can Pluto support in one system. I am wondering if it is possible to build a system that can power 4 TV's at the same time, each being able to watch their own program or be able to watch one program on TV and record another one while you are watching.

Thanks.

[archived]

Nobody here has tried this, so we can't say for sure.  Assuming it's sending a compressed mpeg signal, it shouldn't be a problem.  As I recall, HDTV is under 20mb or so.  So, particularly if you gigabit ethernet, it should be okay.  Let us know how this goes.  We'll provide a good deal of 'handholding' to get you going on this since no doubt some of our high-end dealers would like to be able to do the same thing.

[archived]

You mentioned your high end dealers may be interested in this, wha exactly do you think the specs would be for a device they would want?  I currently use 2 HD cap cards in my myth system, and I can get good prices on the air2pc card, which seems to do better than the pchdtv card.  I am in Tampa and have a local supply for them.  I would be very interested in building a machine that high end dealers would want and working with them.  Any pointers?

[archived]

Thanks for the feedback. Based on work schedules, i am a few weeks away from setting up a system but I will certainly let you know how it goes. There is a new HD Card coming out that supports hardware encoding which will take the load off of the CPU. I am planning to use these cards.

[archived]

Thanks for the feedback. Based on work schedules, i am a few weeks away from setting up a system but I will certainly let you know how it goes. There is a new HD Card coming out that supports hardware encoding which will take the load off of the CPU. I am planning to use these cards.

What card is that?

[archived]

What type of HDTV card does hardware encoding?  And why...  If your talking about OTA then the PcHDTV etc...  will just pull the ATSC directly out of the air.  There is very little CPU needed to "encode" HDTV OTA, because it's a raw stream.  Now, playback of HDTV is another matter

[archived]

What type of HDTV card does hardware encoding?  And why...  If your talking about OTA then the PcHDTV etc...  will just pull the ATSC directly out of the air.  There is very little CPU needed to "encode" HDTV OTA, because it's a raw stream.  Now, playback of HDTV is another matter