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HDTV PC Capture Solutions?
Akai asks: "With HDTV DVR's costing upwards of a thousand US dollars or more, I was looking for a HiDef capture card that would work with Linux and an external HD receiver.
The pchdtv card looks nice but it's RF input only for HiDef content, and only supports OTA at this point.
Both DirecTV and DishNetwork HD STBs can be hacked with FireWire ports, but it's not cheap, so I was trying to find a capture card with either DVI or Component inputs, or a converter to take either of those to FireWire. The old Dish Network model 5000 receivers had an option to output HDTV RF but they are no longer compatible with Dish's current HDTV broadcasts.
Google has not been helpful in this regard, and all I've found is professional (>$2000US) format conversion gear.
Is there a PC (hopefully Linux) based video capture solution that can capture the output of a cable of DBS STB (RGBA, DVI, or Component out) without a significant loss of image fidelity?"
I agree.
But I would also like to point out that there is a *huge* market for a "wife proof" AV solution.
Of course, when I say "wife proof", I mean "non techie" proof. The former certainly isn't politically correct. I realize that. However, in my case, it is what I'm seeking.
Basically, the whole concept of multiple sources and multiple remotes has failed miserably. It is too wonderfully complicated. We shouldn't require a flow chart to operate the AV equipment. Here's what we need:
1) A communication method for devices that does not rely on line of sight. My programmable Sony IR remote works great except for those cases when the sun is setting and interrupts a portion of a macro, etc. Then the whole system needs a technician.
2) Discrete on and off codes for this system. See problem #1.
3) No more AV component switching. Just daisy chain all the damn stuff and give each device a priority. If I want to watch a DVD, then I turn on the DVD player which has priority over television content. All devices recognize this priority and do their own switching accordingly. Additionally, a single box that does everything (TV, PVR, DVD and Media) would simplify greatly. I'm open for realistic alternatives.
4) A friggin' industry standard. If everyone wasn't trying to make a buck for themselves, we'd be light years ahead.
What am I missing here?
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
The new Comcast DVR (Motorola 6208) allows capturing
of the HDTV stream through FireWire. It's a little tricky to get it working. I needed to patch libavc1394 to recognize the device correctly. Once that works you just need to send it a signal to start sending the stream (dvcont record) and then you can capture it with ddr1394. The Comcast DVR is $9.99 a month here, so that's a cheap way of capturing HDTV.