Video Capture Card

[Rathji]

I am toying with the idea of building a home server, and to justify part of this cost, I am thinking of making it a PVR as well.

I am planning on using Myth TV, unless someone comes up with a compelling reason not to.

I am stuck on figuring out what I need in a video capture card though. There are lots out there, ranging from $50-$200 but since I have never been in the market for one, I am not sure what exactly I should be looking for. Are the USB ones any good? I might end up using my extra laptop for this temporarily, so if they are suitable, then I might go that way to begin with.

Chances are I will be using the cable box solely for this PVR, so it only needs to take input. For now I am only planning on needing the single input, but if there are reasonably priced cards with > 1 input, it might be something I would consider.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Bobblehead]

If you're looking at Myth then your biggest issue is getting something that a) works on Linux and b) Myth supports. You also need to know are you looking to capture standard def or HD? Are you using a set-top box that needs to be changed (which necessitates an IR-Blaster of some sort)?

I screwed up my Mythbox a year ago somehow (I tried fixing what wasn't broken and ended up breaking it) so haven't nosed around the Myth sites for a while, but if you read there for a bit you should get a pretty good idea what is popular.

[Galakanokis]

Blufish444 makes some good higher end capture cards. They will do up to 2K resolutions.

Kona cards are always good as well.

Depends what you are doing I guess.

[Bobblehead]

The most common Myth cards are the Hauppauge and the Avermedia ones. I have a PVR350, but didn't like the TV-OUT option so it was a bit of overkill.

On my setup, the biggest issues I had were getting the remote to work. Of course there were other things that would crop up (usually my own fault), but once things were working, it worked pretty well.

It is way cheaper/easier now just to get a PVR from your cable/sat company, but I wouldn't know what I know today about Linux without MythTV.

[Jedi Ninja]

I haven't been keeping up with PC PVR technology for few years now, but the Happauge cards used to be the most widely supported. There are some Windows MCE certified capture cards that are also good (like the ATI one) and have been ported to other software programs, but you'll want to make sure it works with whatever software you want to run.

I'm not sure what the latest and greatest on the HD front is. Up until a year ago, this was a major roadblock for PC based PVRs as the only HD capture hardware affordably available could only record OTA HDTV and would not record HD from a cable box or sattelite box. But I see Happauge has a newer product (http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html) which looks to be supported by MythTV.

Having a few years of experience with a couple of different setups, I'd have to confess that I don't think it was worth it. Too much hassle, especially when trying to deal with an external cable box. I'd probably rather just get a ready to go set top box if I wanted to do PVR now. By the time you buy all the little bits and pieces you need to get a PC PVR working (capture card, remote, IR blaster, video card), you're already blowing almost as much money as a set-top box costs.

Just my two cents.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

Blufish444 makes some good higher end capture cards. They will do up to 2K resolutions.

Kona cards are always good as well.

Depends what you are doing I guess.

http://www.future-micro.ca/db/produc...&cat=32&page=1


Only a chump would be caught with such a cheaparse card in their PVR system. Don't want that kind of lowgrade hardware degrading my recordings of Lost.