Recording TV

[GoinAllTheWay]

I installed a Windows Home Server on my network at home a couple months back. Did it mainly as a way to back up the rigs in my house obviously but also want to use it to stream video to other tv's in the house. I think I have since found a solution for streaming video to the others tv's but now I am looking for something to let me record TV.

Paying $500 (a recently reduced price I think) for Shaws HD PVR is a total gouging even at the lower price. I looked through ME for TV tuner cards but not sure which one to get.

Seems like most of them seem to have the ability to record HD content but that's only the free over the air stuff it seems, most also boast recording anaglog tv, isn't analog gone now?

Basically what I'm looking for is a card or USB device of sorts that includes software to record tv and save it to my server in both digital and HD.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

I installed a Windows Home Server on my network at home a couple months back. Did it mainly as a way to back up the rigs in my house obviously but also want to use it to stream video to other tv's in the house. I think I have since found a solution for streaming video to the others tv's but now I am looking for something to let me record TV.

Paying $500 (a recently reduced price I think) for Shaws HD PVR is a total gouging even at the lower price. I looked through ME for TV tuner cards but not sure which one to get.

Seems like most of them seem to have the ability to record HD content but that's only the free over the air stuff it seems, most also boast recording anaglog tv, isn't analog gone now?

Basically what I'm looking for is a card or USB device of sorts that includes software to record tv and save it to my server in both digital and HD.

Anyone have any suggestions?

In US markets, the OTA tuner cards are viable because some areas have lots of OTA stations. Not so in Calgary.

Last time I looked, there were no tuner cards capable of tuning Shaw digital cable signals. However, you can get a video capture card with an "IR blaster" that can change the channel on your cable or sattelite box, then you run the video out on your sattelite to your video capture card. This works fine for SD. HD is trickier because the technology (HDMI) has been designed to prevent recording. There is one product I know of that is capable of capturing component video (HD analog) but it is expensive and doesn't have great reviews:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html

You might also want to check out the digitalhome.ca forums for more up to date info.

At $498, the Shaw HD-PVR box doesn't seem so bad any more.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Seriously? Wow.......maybe I'm looking at the wrong equipment. What is the difference between a tuner card and video capture card? So with the video capture card, are you still able to pre-set it to record tv for later playback?

Assuming I had to bite the bullet and by the Shaw HD PVR, are you able to move recorded TV off of it and onto a WHS so it can be streamed to other tv's? If so, any other snags I should expect?

[Jedi Ninja]

Looks like you may be able to use the firewire port on the back of the Shaw HD digital cable box to capture video if you are using MythTV or SageTV, but not in Windows Media 7.

This is outside my range of knowledge.

[GoinAllTheWay]

This

http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/default.asp

in conjunction with this

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...3%28ME%29.aspx

may have legs. It says it works in Canada but I'll have to look into it a bit more.

[Jedi Ninja]

ATSC is over the air only. Shaw digital cable is QAM. There are a few QAM tuner cards out there but they're not well supported and only work if the channel is unencrypted; most channels are encrypted.

The BeyondTV software is good, though. You might be able to get it to work with the firewire port on the non-PVR shaw HD box.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

You might also want to check out the digitalhome.ca forums for more up to date info.

Holy crap, what a forum! Tons of info in there, thanks

[MickMcGeough]

If you've got a Motorola HD cable box (non-PVR), you can use the firewire output to stream all* the channels to your PC. Almost anything can read the stream (i.e. VLC), and you can use Cap-DVHS or something like that for straight recording.

The best setup I've done is a SageTV HD-PVR PC. It's the ultimate HD-PVR, IMO. It can stream TV to other devices (web browser, client PC, extender box) and is just way more powerful than Windows Media Center.

*I've only found a couple that don't work. Unfortunately for me that includes the NFL Network. All the HD channels (including PPV) work via firewire.

[LeftWing]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

This

http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/default.asp

in conjunction with this

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...3%28ME%29.aspx

may have legs. It says it works in Canada but I'll have to look into it a bit more.

This is the setup that I'm using at home in conjunction with StarChoice (Shaw would work with the same setup). My capture card is older then the one you quoted, but the system works just fine for me. Just be sure you have available disk space.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Fantastic, thanks guys. Just to clarify, once I record a show, I'm going to wind up with a file that can be stored centrally, available to stream to other tvs in the house? I think on issue I may still have is the machine that will do the actual recording.

LeftWing: The machine you use to record incoming TV, do you use the same machine to stream saved video to a TV beside it? Basically I think my last hurdle is to figure out what is required to stream the video from my server to the TV's in my house.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

If you've got a Motorola HD cable box (non-PVR), you can use the firewire output to stream all* the channels to your PC. Almost anything can read the stream (i.e. VLC), and you can use Cap-DVHS or something like that for straight recording.

The best setup I've done is a SageTV HD-PVR PC. It's the ultimate HD-PVR, IMO. It can stream TV to other devices (web browser, client PC, extender box) and is just way more powerful than Windows Media Center.

*I've only found a couple that don't work. Unfortunately for me that includes the NFL Network. All the HD channels (including PPV) work via firewire.

How difficult is it to set up the firewire configuration, software wise? Do you have to install additional plug-ins, drivers, etc, or is it all built-in to Sage?

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by LeftWing

This is the setup that I'm using at home in conjunction with StarChoice (Shaw would work with the same setup). My capture card is older then the one you quoted, but the system works just fine for me. Just be sure you have available disk space.

I think this is non-HD, though? The connection between the cable box and the computer is a composite video cable?

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Fantastic, thanks guys. Just to clarify, once I record a show, I'm going to wind up with a file that can be stored centrally, available to stream to other tvs in the house? I think on issue I may still have is the machine that will do the actual recording.

LeftWing: The machine you use to record incoming TV, do you use the same machine to stream saved video to a TV beside it? Basically I think my last hurdle is to figure out what is required to stream the video from my server to the TV's in my house.

Yes, you can play it to a TV if you have a TV-out card on your computer. Or, you can buy other media player type devices to play the files on other TVs in your house. (Xbox, MediaMVP, WDTV, etc.)

[LeftWing]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

I think this is non-HD, though? The connection between the cable box and the computer is a composite video cable?

Mine is definitely not HD, but I'm pretty sure the same manufacturer offers one or more HD options.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Ok, so just to make sure, my server is NOT going to be the device doing the recording, it is simply the device the recorded shows will wind up on. I will need a: a computer to record the actual incoming shows. That computer will have to be attched to the network so that once it has finished recording the file, it moves it to the server (or perhaps the signal simply passes through this computer and is saved to the HD on the server directly. b) I will need a device connected to my TV upstairs that can access the now saved TV show on the server. Is this how you are setup Leftwing, or is the computer doing the recording also the computer streaming it to your TV?

As I understand it, the HD recording is done mainly with the OTA stuff, something Jedi Ninja has pointed out is not available in Calgary.

[LeftWing]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

LeftWing: The machine you use to record incoming TV, do you use the same machine to stream saved video to a TV beside it? Basically I think my last hurdle is to figure out what is required to stream the video from my server to the TV's in my house.

In my case I save the video to my network storage drives. From there I stream the video through an old laptop to my living room TV.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Ok, so just to make sure, my server is NOT going to be the device doing the recording, it is simply the device the recorded shows will wind up on. I will need a: a computer to record the actual incoming shows. That computer will have to be attched to the network so that once it has finished recording the file, it moves it to the server (or perhaps the signal simply passes through this computer and is saved to the HD on the server directly. b) I will need a device connected to my TV upstairs that can access the now saved TV show on the server. Is this how you are setup Leftwing, or is the computer doing the recording also the computer streaming it to your TV?

As I understand it, the HD recording is done mainly with the OTA stuff, something Jedi Ninja has pointed out is not available in Calgary.

What is your server device? If you can map it as a network drive, then you should have no probably getting shows on or off of it. If the device has a built-in uPNP server, then you will have even more options in terms of serving content out to other devices on the network. (Some NAS type external hard drives have uPNP built in.)

As for HD, you can probably get it if you use the non-PVR motorolla HD tuner box as an external and connect it with firewire, I've never tried this myself.

[LeftWing]

Also, it's worth noting that the network connections should not be wireless. At least in my case, I found wireless to be choppy enough that it was annoying - so factor a hard wire connection into the equation if you aren't going to use the computer that records the video to push the content to the TV.

[Vulcan]

There are 2 OTA stations in Calgary, so an
ATSC tuner card would work to record those two channels.
Hauppage use to have a tuner card with HD component inputs so you could record off a set top box but I don't see it around now. With Shaw as someone said firewire is an option.

Myself, I played around with a tuner card from my Bell TV box to my computer but I wasn't satisfied with the picture quality in SD. With Bell it's easier to just buy a HD receiver ($150?) and connect an external HDD to it for up to 100 hours of HD recording.

[GoinAllTheWay]

My server is a Windows Home Server. It's based on Server 2003 just dumbed down a bit and yes, I do beleive it has some form of uPNP, may have to research this a tad more but I believe it includes Windows Media Center.