Slashdot Mirror
Plextor PVRs Now Support Linux
planetjay writes "Plextor
PVRs now support Linux with an open source SDK for their ConvertX
PVR external USB TV tuner/encoder
This is great news for Linux PVR users who want to use an external
device with hardware based MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/DivX encoding in their MythTV or Freevo homebuilt PVR.
"Plextor is strongly committed to supporting the Open Source Software
movement with free development tools that help speed the creation of
next-generation Linux-based video software," said Dirk Peters,
director of marketing, Plextor."
The sad thing is that the built-in tv-tuner only supports NTSC, so this product is obviously not targeted for europe...
Open Materials Database
Hauppauge PVR-250 is what I used on mine.
" Ofcource I've yet to see a company make something compatable with my satalite service. So, in the meantime I'm stuck with the DVR in my Sat Receiver."
you basically can use almost any DVR with an external satellite set top box. You just route the video/audio output of the STB to the DVR/encoding card and use an IR blaster or serial cable to control the STB (i.e. change the channels at the appropriate time)
The only rub really would be if it's an HDTV satellite service, as that's a different wrinkle =)
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
" Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't all Tivos already Linux-based? And didn't they just recently come out with an SDK for third-party users?"
They do use linux as the base part of the TiVo, but all the juicy stuff is propietary AFAIK.
The SDK is for the home media option only, i.e. to develop applications that reside outside the tivo on a PC, and add functionality over the network... which is pretty cool and people are doing cool stuff already with it, but it's not a full blown access to TiVo's innards...
*shrug*
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Try KnoppMyth. I don't know if it crosses your threshold of "easy", but it's definately easier than building myth from soruce.
Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
well there's knoppmyth mythtv installer that makes it pretty easy. Pair that with a pvr250 and a nvidia video card and you should be in great shape (I'm reasonably sure in the near future the knoppmyth project will add support for the plextor convertX - I hope)
If you go to the dark side (windoze) it can be pretty easy... shameless plug check out some of the articles on byopvr.com for some good diy background, recommendations, etc..
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
"I read recently (sorry lost the link) that we can't record HD signals from cable or satellite since they are encrypted. The amount of information from an HD feed is huge and with current technology would take a 6GHz CPU to decrypt in real-time."
.17 has some preliminary support for such an arrangement, again depending on if your firewire port is enabled and some other factors on your particular STB (although I'm confused as whether they have to have the firewire port be unencrytped or not, or what the regs are, to be honest...)
Well not ALL satellite traffic is encrypted. There's a ton of FTA DVB satellite signals out there... even hidef ones (ok they are pbs, but still... mmmmm NOVA...
There are a few HDTV cards that CAN decode unencrypted QAM signal via digital cable, but that depends on your cable company not encrypting which is hit or miss...
There's also the possibility of pulling the HDTV content over firewire (and controlling the STB via firewire) and I believe the latest mythtv
*Shrug* so I guess you're basically right, but it's not out of the question, but there's not a good legal way to decrypt digital cable (or directV/dishnetwork) like using a CableCard in some HDTV's now...
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
That defeats part of the purpose. One nice thing about DSS based PVR's (at least the TiVo units integrated with DirecTV) is they record the bit stream directly so there is no digital-analog-digital, and shows with 5.1 sound are not downmixed to 2 channel analog. In short, there's zero quality difference between live and recorded TV.
I'm going to risk saying something positive about Microsoft and say that Windows XP Media Center edition is easy. It's not necessarily cheap, but it works.
You need a compatible TV tuner (Hauppauge PVR-350), a video card with TV and 64MB or more memory, a software MPEG decoder, a DVD drive, a sound card, and a compatible remote ($35 from pcalchemy.com)
XP MCE OEM is available from Newegg, the official MS remote is available at pcalchemy.com.
That's about it. PVR works, the FM tuner on the PVR-350 works, DVD player works, etc.
There are drawbacks, but if you want something easy, there you go. Plus, the Xbox Media Center Extender just plain works.
I've been using Windows Media Center edition and I'm going to drop it. First off, it's unstable, having to reboot your TV once or twice a week isn't fun especially when if you don't do it you come home to find it missed your shows. Second, the DRM is really a pain in the neck. MS-DVR isn't hard to convert to a better format but it is time consuming because there's always that extra step of making it into mpeg-2. Saving a show off windows media center is actually harder than ripping a CSS encrypted DVD. (I hate to do the typical MS-bashing but I really have been having a lot of trouble with my media center recently.)
I have been planning on buying one of the plextor units for a while, I like the idea of hardware encoding directly to mpeg-4, and I like plextor products, the have made the most reliable CD burners I've ever owned. I like the linux option, that seems like a good idea, but whatever I do I simply want it to be as versatile as possible, and Windows MCE is not versatile.
Both forms are correct for modern usages.
Just because an error is moderately widespread doesn't mean it's no longer an error -- and indeed, there are certainly many dissenting opinions with regard to the acceptability of using apostrophes to pluralize acronyms.
I never understood the old reasoning behind something like "PVRs." That just doesn't make any sense. "Personal Video Recorderss" eh?
The acronym is for an individual unit -- a PVR is a personal video recorder, not a "personal video recorders". "PVRs", thus, refers to the plural: "personal video recorders". Quite appropriate.
http://www.plextor.be/products/px-tv402u.asp?choic e=ConvertX%20PVR%20PX-TV402U
Or just buy a card with multiple tuners. My pvr500 has two, but I've heard of cards with four! That way you don't have to have an ugly USB device outside the case.
Not to take away from what Plextor has done though, this looks like it might be the solution for some people.
The encoder is the WIS G07007SB and the board is based on a WIS reference design with improvements made in-house by Plextor. Both the hardware and the Linux drivers are quite stable.
The broadcast flag does not apply to analog capture cards, like the Plextor PVR. You might want to worry about Macrovision and CGMS/A, though. I don't think hardware vendors have much incentive to tell you the truth about DRM "features" in their hardware.
An analog PVR PCI card uses about 1-2MB/s. An HDTV PCI card uses about 3MB/s. PCI has a capacity of 133MB/s shared among all the cards. USB 2.0 has maybe 40-50MB/s of usable shared bandwidth. You do the math.
I actually tried flashing my 716 on freedos and dr dos. each time I got some spew about ASPI stuff.
I had to install f***ing windows to update the thing. And I still can't make it play DVD video.
So yeah, Plextor needs to do better to make me think they support Linux/OSS.
Right now I envision them as Jim Carrey bent over, talking funny while trying to make his buttocks move like a mouth. (very hard to take seriously)
PLEXTOR, GET YOUR EFFIN' ACT TOGETHER!
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
Yes, the PAL model will do stereo (A2, NICAM, etc), I just haven't written the support for it yet. Similarly with VBI, although it's also coming. (Incidentally, teletext support has nothing to do with stereo reception in the audio decoder other than the fact that they're both "fringe" features that are often omitted from cheap products.)
Unless I'm missing something, you can totally port GPL'ed code to other platforms. You just have to distribute the source if you distribute binaries (or a platform with the binaries embedded)