PC tv tuner for digital TV?

gs39t

I just got NTL digital in the door, and im already wondering of how to record into MPEG as ive done via TV tuner on the old analog signal.

Can this even be done? Or am i stuck with a VHS recorder?

TIA

icdg

You can record the analogue output from the STB, of course!

If you want direct recording without the digital to analogue and back again conversion, unfortunately that's not possible with NTL digital and a PC card. PC cards with NTL digital tuners don't exist. There are some DTT PC cards available (though why, since we've no DTT - that's another question).

gs39t

How do i go about recording the signal? I have a Hauppage winTV PVR 350 - i havent even plugged in the "digital" signal yet.

I cant figure out how that would work

Do you have a bit more info on how to do it?

TIA

gs39t

Thanks guys,

I'll read through it and give it a shot, but im sure i'll be back here!

watty

You can get actual Cable Digital PCI PC tuner cards.

BUT:
1) You need the Card reader option and an NTL card as the programs are mostly encrypted

2) Only NTL supplied and authorised equipment can be connected to cable directly.


Connecting an Analog WinTV card to external box (Digital or Analog Cable, Sky Digibox, VHS, DVD) or whatever is a case of RF (poorer, i.e. Aerial cable connection)) or Composite Video (RCA/Phono possibly via SCART adaptor) is better or S-Video (possibley via an expensive RGB SCART to S-Video adaptor) is best.

The cheaper cards don't have S-Video.

Quality depends more on the PC setup (CPU, RAM, Harddisk) and codec/capture settings.

Direct Analog to MPEG1 or MPEG2 needs a lot of CPU power and is poor quality but very economic on disk space.

Huffy codec is economic on CPU, but needs fast disks and lots of space. Quality is the best.

MJPEG codec is variable quality and needs a powerfull CPU. Expensive (> €270) "capture/edit" solution PCI cards often have a built in Hardware MJEPG codec.

MJPEG and DV formats are similar quality, similar technology and similar disk space usage and along with Huffy Codec allow good editing.

Edit in MPEG1 (poor format) or MPEG2 (good format) is limited to cuts and trims as it is designed for distribution and "off line" encoding. Realtime encoding of Analog to MPEG1 or MPEG2 is horrid.

DV from analog can be doen by a few Digital 8 and MiniDV camcorders simply using the the Firewire/IEEE1394/ILInk as a file transfer (real time streaming). The Camera (or dedicated Dazzle/Pinacle Analog to DV "Bridge") does the actual analog capture and DV encoding.

Currently a Digital Camcorder with "Analog DV Bridge in" function is about £480 for a Sony DV TRV22. This SERIOUSLY outperforms ANY analog WinTV card for quality and does not use a huge CPU overhead. Better value really than the dedicated "DV bridge" products that cost typically £200, as you get a lot more flexibility and a Camcorder....


I use a Hauppage PCI Satellite card for direct MPEG2 recording "as is" from Free To Air Satellite channels, BBC mostly can be directly authored to DVD WITHOUT re-encoding, but needs headers of files edited by PVAstrumento (which converts older Satellite card PVA file sto MPEG files, WITHOUT re-encoding too).

Satellite, Cable and Terrestial Digital is already MPEG2, but there are more (incompatible) formats than DVD video uses. A PC DVD player will mostly play them.


For NTL cable a Analog WinTV card with Showshifter or IUVLabs recorder using desired MJPEG quality, with 120G drive and at least 933MHz PIII with 256M RAM running NT, Windows2000 or Windows XP. All partitions NTFS format.

Win95/98/Me are only good for short or low resolution (web cam 320 x 240) capture.

Typicaly capture resolution should be 704 x 576 minimum.

The vertical MUST be 640 for NTSC and 576 for PAL.

Note a VHS is about 375 x 576, SVHS= 540 x 576 and DV 720 x 576.

MPEG2 on Satellite in PAL can be 384 x 288, 384 x576, 540 x 576, 704 x 576 or 720 x576.

Since sampling theory explains why you must sample TWICE the detail to get it all, even from VHS a 704 x 576 is MUCH better than 384 x 576, even though VHS "horizontally" is not much sharper than 384.

384 x 288 is PAL VCD (video CD) and is actually HALF the quality of VHS. Also the VCD MPEG1 is VERY poor on movement.

480 x 576 is PAL SVCD. SVCD uses the same MPEG2 as DVD and thus is hugely better than VCD. Also a 4:3 SVCD is almost same "quality" as "Animorphic" 16:9 720x 576 DVD.

Because SVCD/MPEG2 is lower noise and and has no VHS colour smear, it is actually possible at high quality encoding settings to exceed S-VHS or Hi8 quality.

Many Satellite channels are lower quality settings and similar or lower resolution to SVCD at its "best" setting.

Full "broadcast" quality Analog PAL is slightly poorer than typical BBC Satellite or Quality DVD encoding, but is higher quality with any motion at all.