Capturing HD material to a PC

[Iceberg1560]

I'm looking for an HD capable video card for video capturing on my PC. Can anyone point me in the right direction. My goal is to take some material off of my HD-DVR.

[bdraw]

I'm looking for an HD capable video card for video capturing on my PC. Can anyone point me in the right direction. My goal is to take some material off of my HD-DVR.

You and everyone else.
There simply isn't a consumer grade HD capture card. The cheapest one is like 10k.

Not to mention you really wouldn't want to re-encode the signal anyways.
The signal is encoded at the source with some very high end encoders, and transmitted encoded. The video doesn't get decoded till you go to watch it.

In fact when a DVR comes out that does not work with ananlogue cable channels they won't even need an encoder at all. When you record HD or Digital cable you are actually just wrting the encoded stream to disk. Then when you play it back it is just like when you watch it live, except the encoded signal is played back off the disk.

The only hope for this is Firewire. Some of the DVR's like the Motorols 6208 have a firewire port on them and you can hook them up to your computer using some software called DTVRecorder from Vividlogic that will capture the stream to disk.

I am currently able to do this with OTA sources, after I capture the souce I edit it and play it back through the firewire to my tv.

The Cable companies have agreed to supply cable boxes with functional firewire outputs as of April 1st 2004. It is called the "Plug and play" agreement.

[jaymer]

This hasn't been discussed here a lot (I think just due to the low interest/technical level of the members), but you should really check out the HD recording forum over at http://www.avsforum.com

you're not supposed to be able to record anything but OTA signals... so getting stuff off your HD-DVR is unlikely, and probably breaking the DMCA (digital millenium copyright act).
there WAS a loophole in old DISH 5000 receivers that output whatever the DISH was tuned to as a channel 3/4 signal, and then you could have your recorder fixed to channel 3/4 and be able to record... having to change channels directly on the DISH receiver. That was supposed to be turned off over a year ago, but it still works I believe. This is how much of the early HDNET material and HBO/SHO movies gor recorded. Another method was a modified HD receiver called "169time" - but its a 50/50 deal on whether it was really worth it.

Tonight, as I type, I'm recording the Mummy Returns from ABC using a PC and a HiPix card - several cards ar available for this.
And I'll be able to edit it and remove the commercial breaks... storage about 5-6gig an hour w/out commercials. Any OTA stuff can be recorded with several cards out there, and replayed via software decoding if you have a 2.4 GHz pc.

Once the dual layer DVDs are recordable this year, we will easily be able to archive 1hr shows to 1 disc, and replay them anywhere given a fast enough PC.

me and a friend build HOME THEATRE PCs for these applications - as well consult/install other HT things like screens and projectors.

[Bschneider]

Like Jaymer, I too use an PC with a HD card. I, however, do not use a HiPix card but use a myHD card. I believe I paid $299.00 for mine at about this time last year from www.digitalconnection.com

My PC is a 866mhz with 256mb ram. I also have a 120gb and a 250gb hard drive in this machine. Absolutely no problems recording anything OTA.

[jaymer]

i couldn't say this on avsforum, because digital connections is a "sponsor", and they get really ticked if you don't butt-kiss the sponsors, but i'd do all in my power to keep from giving digitalconnection ANY of my money. no reason to get into it - just try and find it somewhere else... in fact, there's a cheaper card (the Fusion sp?) that doesn't have the HD codec on the card, it does it all via software so its much cheaper.

[Iceberg1560]

Thanks to all for the input. At least i have an idea of what options are out there and where to start. :D

[OccamMD]

I use the MyHD. I have the bucs superbowl in 720p on the hard rive from last year so mine is the older model (110 vs 120 I believe), but it works well. I'm happy with it on an old DELL XPSR450 upgraded to 1GHz.

[Bschneider]

[quote="OccamMD"]I use the MyHD. I have the bucs superbowl in 720p on the hard rive from last year so mine is the older model (110 vs 120 I believe), but it works well. I'm happy with it on an old DELL XPSR450 upgraded to 1GHz.[quote]

I would love to somehow get a copy of that from you!

[bdraw]

[quote="OccamMD"]I use the MyHD. I have the bucs superbowl in 720p on the hard rive from last year so mine is the older model (110 vs 120 I believe), but it works well. I'm happy with it on an old DELL XPSR450 upgraded to 1GHz.[quote]

I would love to somehow get a copy of that from you!

I second that.

[Iceberg1560]

I third that! :D

[CANDY76MAN]

you could probly sell that...of course you might go to jail :lol:

[OccamMD]

Hmmmmm, There are a few drop outs, but all-in-all very good. But what format *.ts on a DVD-ROM?

[OccamMD]

Or if someone has a firewire card and a DVHS then I guess we culd go that route.

remember, you need something to view it with like a *.ts viewer, MyHD card, or Fusion.

I don't have any I don't have any multi-media software, but I'm sure someone could get it formatted nicely, say in WM9?

[jaymer]

uhh... wakeup call. there's another Superbowl champion already. game's over.
bucs won... LAST year.

I guess since the bucs are crap again, some of you need something to hold onto. :lol:

[bdraw]

Or if someone has a firewire card and a DVHS then I guess we culd go that route.

remember, you need something to view it with like a *.ts viewer, MyHD card, or Fusion.

I don't have any I don't have any multi-media software, but I'm sure someone could get it formatted nicely, say in WM9?

I watch TS files on my p3 1ghz w/ a Radeon 8500 using Sasem OnAir Edit, it is supposed to require their capture card, but it doesn't not turn off after 30 days like it says it does. You can download it from their site. Also VLC works really well as well as elecard(these require more power).

Assuming the game is 3 hour un edited then it will take up about 18GB which is way to much for a DVD. I have a friend who has a big firewire Hare drive. If he lets me borrow it I will come over make a copy(if you have firewire) then re-encode it to Xvid(I prefer it to wm9) then I will copy it to DVD-R for whomever.

[OccamMD]

It is on my snap server, I normally run 802.11g, but I can plug my laptop into the router directly and the laptop has firewire. I thought I could make one DVD per quarter.

[Scanogram]

uhh... wakeup call. there's another Superbowl champion already. game's over.
bucs won... LAST year.

I guess since the bucs are crap again, some of you need something to hold onto. :lol:

Aah, another fair weather fan.