TV tuner card with RGB in for recording satellite

TVDX

I want to record directly from a digibox to a PC.
Is there a PC TV tuner card that will take RGB in?.

L1011

AFAIK No.

Evesham did sell a media centre PC with SCARTs but again I doubt they were RGB enabled.

JHMEG

AFAIK, there is no analog TV card with RGB in.

But you could:
a) Use a DVB-S card in the PC instead and record the MPEG2 stream directly. Obviously this isn't that simple if you want to record anything other than the FTA stuff, or
b) Get a Grundig digibox and record from the S-Video output (only on Grundigs). Not as good as RGB, but a lot better than composite.

watty

There is ONE RGB scart but an expensive option on an expensive Capture card.

You can get an RGB to S-Video convertor about 100 Euro

S-Video on Satellite or DVD is about similar to RGB as the UV components are sampled less than the Y.

A Sat card is about 60 Euro and is perfect playback = live. Recompression and encoding quality is a problem on PC ansogue captiure

There are ways of using Sky card on PC, not 100% relaible or easy. Zaphod managed it. (Legitmate for your own viewing on legitimate Sky card).

TVDX

That's interesting, I hadn't thought about Sat cards.
If I had one of them, could I then record in RGB.
Do they produce RGB quality pictures?.
Also, how much is one with a CI slot?.
If you were to record directly from source like that in perfect quality, how much space does say an hour take in HD space?.
Alot of questions I know, but can you set it like a DVD recorder to basically say I want the size to be X size to fit say 3 or 4 hours of video on DVD if you wanted the option to, I know in that case, the RGB benefit is at a loss but will I have that option?.

JHMEG

There is no RGB (which is an analog signal used to get the picture onto your telly) as such if using a sat card to record: the MPEG2 stream goes straight to your hard disc, and is therefore perfect quality.

Cards with a CI slot are a bit dearer, but note aswell that some of the nicer PVR-type software can't make use of a CAM. Eg, I use GB-PVR which can't.

A good quality stream will take about 2GB an hour, iirc. Some of the "cheaper" channels don't transmit at full PAL resolution, and at low-ish bit rates, so they will take less.

Be aware that even though it's an MPEG2 stream there is a chance that it won't be within the specs required for DVD, either resolution or bitrate. Eg, last year's F1 on ITV1: the bitrate was too high (in theory) for DVD.

watty

There are two solutions to the Bitrate & resolution on MPEG2 Satellite.

The main problem is 544 x 576, this is not a DVD resolution, though at 4:3 visually the same quality as 16:9 @720x576:


1) Before DVD authoring tell lies and patch the header, then after DVD author but before burn reset the header to reality (DVD patcher program). Your DVD player may still play it, even though it is not in the spec. A PC will certinally play the files.

2) Re-encode ! Still better quality than a Analog composite, S-Video or RGB input PVR.

3) Simply burn the files as files on a Data DVD, It won't play in a DVD player (or very few), but will play on PC.

If the PC has video out you want S-Video to feed the TV set. You can use TWO video senders on say ChA and ChD to wirelessly get 4 ch sound and Y/C from the S-Video connector to TV .

If always playing from a PC to the TV (even a 2nd shuttle PC via ethernet cable) then you don't need DVDs at all.

The TX MPEG headers lie about bitrate. You can edit that. DVD players ALL support higher bitrate than the MPEG2 stream SD TX really has.

Supercell

Or get a DM500 and record the stream directly to a mapped pc hard drive (or more expensive get a DM7020 with internal hard drive and just map the drive in it to your pc to play directly or burn etc).