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October 13, 2004

A True HDTV HTPC

I am trying to setup a "True HDTV HTPC" with HTDV signal in from a satellite receiver (via component video) and HDTV output to a Sony Wega HDTV (via DVI). Every part of the project is ready to go, except for the video capture. I've looked far and wide for a capture card meeting the simple need for accepting component video input. At least I would have assumed it would be a simple thing with all the cool HDTV tuner cards out there... My question being, does anyone know of a capture card that will capture from component video source?
-- Gavin Ostlund

October 13, 2004 in Home Theater PC, TV & HDTV

Answers

I know of the Hauppauge WinTV-HD.

The snippet from the Hauppauge site says this:
"WinTV-HD decodes all ATSC Digital TV formats, 480i 480p, 720p and 1080i. After decoding, the digital TV picture is either scaled for display in a resizeable window on your PC screen, or displayed full screen in true High Definition."

Posted by: Steve at Oct 13, 2004 11:26:25 AM

There is currently no such(consumer)product.
The problem is converting the analog
samples from the component signals into
an MPEG2 transport stream. This is currently
too expensive for a consumer device. When single
chip MPEG2 encoders come out a capture device
of this type will probably spring up.

Posted by: VIctor Nowik at Oct 13, 2004 12:54:12 PM

Yeah, there is a huge difference between being able to tune in a pre-compressed ATSC (or QAM for digital cable) stream, and taking the raw firehose of uncompressed component video and compressing it. It is just too much for today's affordable encoders.

And since there is very little demand for such a thing - since it is a lower quality than saving the pre-encoded ATSC/QAM data - I don't know if we'll ever see many such cards. More likely someone would produce a satellite tuner card that lets you record the digital signal like a DirecTiVo does.

Posted by: MegaZone at Oct 13, 2004 3:13:24 PM

Thanks for the responses guys, had a feeling things were going to be like this, guess I'll be waiting around for a while, or with any luck there will come out a satellite tuner card (though I'm skeptical about it happening soon). I actually don't see it happening in the near future because of the ease with which it would allow people to steal the signal, even more so than people with card hacks. I imagine it would be much easier to hack any sort of protection scheme once the thing is already hooked up to the computer.

Posted by: Gavin Ostlund at Oct 14, 2004 7:18:17 AM

I looked a little more into that 'WinTV-HD' from Hauppauge, and happened to find something else that might fit the need. This card, the WinTV-NEXUS-s (http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_nexus.html ), is a digital satellite receiver for the PC however, their site is somewhat lacking in details of how exactly this would hook up to my sat, and how it would be able to decode the channels I've subscribed to. If anyone has any details or further information regarding this card, please let me know, thanks!

Posted by: Gavin Ostlund at Oct 14, 2004 4:10:51 PM

I have been on the same quest to find a video input card that supports HDTV with component video/RGB/VGA/DVI. I have not been able to find any. It really is frustrating, because I want to do this very badly. I am sure a suffeciently powerful computer could compress the video (dual athlon 64 maybe).

There is an alternative, which is to record from firewire. Some of the new digital cable boxes have firewire out and so do some satellite receivers (voom, I believe has it). But there is a big issue here: Firewire carries copy protection which prevents you from recording a lot of content.

You can checkout www.169time.com. They apparently have a product that can defeat the copy protection, and they sell firewire enabled satellite receivers.

-Steve

Posted by: Drbuzzo at Dec 2, 2004 7:01:36 PM

I'm trying to do the same thing with the voom box.Would it work to connect the output coax cable from the sat. box to the video card,and let the video card decode the h.d. signal?Then use a I.R. blaster to change the sat. box?

Posted by: gabriel perez at Dec 7, 2004 3:22:38 PM

I don't know if this will help you satellite owners.. But I came across some information about the receivers cable companies use.. The newer receiver have a Firewire port on the back of them and they will actually about the Transport Stream to a hard drive or a computer.. You just have to find the the software and drivers to do it.. I just got it working on my HTPC and it's AWESOME.. The only problem now is figuring out how to make it work like a PVR.. I can record shows and watch them later, But I can't record a show and play it at the same time.. I don't even know if it's possible yet, Recording a transport stream takes about 60% CPU and a massive amount of Hard drive time.. :-)

Rick

Posted by: Rick Stalker at Dec 15, 2004 10:42:45 PM

Fry's custom HTPC FM7750 claims to be your "true HTPC", but I haven't tried it. Has 2 DVI connectors and one of them seems to be input. Where does it go on a ATI RADEON X300 graphics don't know. Thinking of buying and reverse-engineering, but thought someone had already... Anyone?

Posted by: Andrey I. Savov at Jan 9, 2005 11:25:25 PM

Unfortionately you cannot get HDTV off of the coax-out from a voom box. The coax out just transmits the video in analog standard-defintion (downconverted) on channel 3 like your old vcr or cable box does. It's just there to allow for compatability with older TV's and VCR's with an RF input. Right now the best way to record hdtv is definately firewire.

There are just two problems: 1. some programs are encrypted over firewire and 2 many satellite providers don't support firewire output. Voom does not, which is too bad, because they have the most hdtv.

Most cable companies offer a firewire cable box if you ask for one. It might cost you an extra couple dollars a month, but it'd be worth it.

-Steve

Posted by: Stephen Packard at Jan 13, 2005 9:49:29 PM

http://www.cellarcinemas.com/cgi-bin/store/HD3.html

That will capture component video. Hope you can afford it though, as most places carry it for $795-895 and it's still special order. And it's almost useless without the additional $295 daughter DVI card. You could also try an SDI capture card used with a component>>SDI converter, but still close to a grand for both.

A less expensive card is the SweetSpot Video Processor from pluggedin. Unfortunately, even though this card has component inputs I *don't* think that it does HD, it only does 480i and 576i, so I don't think it is really an HD solution.

http://www.pluggedin.tv/sweetspot/

Posted by: David at Jan 22, 2005 2:32:08 PM

Found this capture device that accepts Component video input

http://www.adstech.com/products/API-752/intro/api752intro.asp?pid=API-752

Posted by: ladyfox at Jan 25, 2005 3:38:19 PM

The ADSTech unit linked to previosuly doesn't seem to do HDTV. The website says:

Capture Resolution:
NTSC: 720 x 480 @ 30 frames per second
PAL: 720 x 576 @ 25 frame per second

This is great for DVDs at 480p, but not HDTV.

Posted by: Bill at Feb 9, 2005 9:41:15 AM

Unfortunately I think we'll have the wait a while before such cards become affordable. Fortunately, China is slowly coming out with their own HDTV standards and it probably won't be that long afterwards before less expensive component capture cards become available. I predict that the first such affordable component capture cards will come from the far east, most likely "Made in Taiwan" or "Made in China".

At this time, you're looking at around $1500+ to $2000+ USD for a component capture card, and that's not counting the very powerful computer you'll likely have to run, as well as massive hard drive space. You can use DVB cards to directly download digital information streaming from a satellite, however, at least in North America, this can no longer be done as all HDTV signals are now Nagra2 encrypted and cannot be decoded.

Posted by: Satviewer2000 at Feb 19, 2005 11:49:26 PM

What are some of the tuner cards out there that support a firewire input signal in HD? I would perfer it to be capable of being connected to the computer via USB or maybe even a software solution using the computer's firewire input so it would also work with laptops. If I could find that, all I would have to find is a HDTV DirecTV receiver capable of outputing through a firewire port...

Posted by: Derron at Feb 23, 2005 11:08:12 AM

I having the same trouble finding a product to do what I need. This is the only card i have found that seems to be capable of taking an component feed and do realtime mpeg encoding to a pc at 1080i.

http://www.canopus.us/US/products/EDIUSNX_for_HDV/pt_EDIUSNX_for_HDV.asp

Its not cheap. HD Tivo starting to look like a good deal to me.
-G

Posted by: Grumby at Mar 16, 2005 4:09:32 PM

anybody tried a hack?

Posted by: Joe at Mar 23, 2005 2:45:41 PM

Does anyone know of a card that will decript Digital Cable and act as a reciever? I have found them for Satalite but not for cable.

Posted by: chris at Apr 13, 2005 11:43:03 AM

I am thinking of making a Windows Media Center, because the their New OS WMC 2005, and we have a Charter HDTV Reciever cable box, will there HDTV PVR card out there for me?

Posted by: Scott G. at Apr 18, 2005 7:14:24 PM

I am interested in doing pretty much what you guys are. It looks like everything is so pro now that it doesn't make much sense to purchase anything to do this HD component input thing. Why is the man always trying to prevent me from seing high def boobs!!!!!!

:) If anyone finds anything lemme know!

:) packhater@aol.com

Thanks!

Posted by: Todd at May 8, 2005 9:43:11 AM

Can any one give me some advice on the best hardware out there to build a htpc. And if I have hdtv cable, is there any way that i can set up a hdtv card to record from the cable box to my hard drive? I noticed there are some QAM cable cards out there, but they will not allow for encrypted cable to be viewed.Is there any cards in the future that will allow me to view all my cable channels? Also will Win MCE prevent me from copying dvd movies? Thanks

Posted by: Josh A at May 22, 2005 12:18:18 PM

So someone please explain this for me.....

This thread has demonstrated that there is not currently a consumer solution for Componant input into your pc. I am still confused about what is possible in using firewire from the cable box into the pc though. Would I simply be able to view Live HD via the TV app I'm running (Such as SageTV, WinTV, etc...)? In recording/decoding HD, system resources are certainly depleted. Is there no PCI solution which incorporates an onboard decoder, similar to the ones found in non-HD TV cards, but in this case it would be able to record Live HDTV, but not use of many system resources?

Where else can I read up on receiving channels via firewire? When doing this, do you even need a PCTV card at all?

TIA

Posted by: Matt at Jul 24, 2005 12:24:21 PM

Hello Everyone,
Try this card for hd input:DigiREC-HD
http://www.caloptic.com

Post feedback on this if you tried it, thanks.

Posted by: Mr. Ed at Aug 16, 2005 10:31:40 AM

Hello Everyone,
Try this card for hd input:DigiREC-HD
http://www.caloptic.com

Post feedback on this if you tried it, thanks.

Posted by: Mr. Ed at Aug 16, 2005 10:35:20 AM

This card looks promising:

http://www.pixelmagicsystems.com/products/pdi/pdi_deluxe.htm

It only does standard resolutions right now, hopefully they will soon release something capable of 720p and higher

Posted by: Michael Kantor at Aug 16, 2005 6:23:30 PM

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