Foxtel Digital and Fusion DVB-t Plus card

[Nightmare77]

Has anyone successfully got this to work so they can watch Foxtel in Media portal?, i have a Fusion dvb-t plus card and i think my main problem is the capture device WDM or whatever isn't showing up in the list of cards anymore, is this to do with it being the analog part of the card so it doesnt' function anymore , or is it something else i'm missing, if anyone has done it with foxtel digital can you let me know how to do it?
Thanks

[jawbroken]

I believe the S-video/composite in on the Fusion dvb-t cards is software encoding. Thus it won't work in MediaPortal in CVS's since S/W cards were disabled. Unfortunately this means that if you want to continue using future MediaPortal builds you need a capture card capable of encoding the s-video/composite input in hardware.

[Nightmare77]

dont suppose you can suggest a card that does the input as hardware and not software but also does digital tv as well so i can have a second tuner installed but also have the option to accept the foxtel signal?

[Taipan]

Yes, the Hauppauge HVR-1300MCE, but it is about AU$300.00 - which is a bit pricey...

Unless you can get one from eBay UK.......

I should add, that given the problems that BigBuddha has had with the poor quality of Hauppauge's MPEG2 encoding, I am not sure that I would recommend any of their TV cards... :?

[jawbroken]

I am not sure that everyone would particularly complain about the video quality BigBuddha is getting, he is self-confessedly very picky. I would think that a lot of these hardware encoding cards would use the same ICs for MPEG2 encoding? I could be wrong.

[Callifo]

The HVR-1300 does have one downside though, they only supplied one video decoder unit so it can view/record from only one part of the card at a time.

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by jawbroken

I am not sure that everyone would particularly complain about the video quality

I haven't actually used or seen the results from a Hauppauge TV card, but it sounds like the video quality is noticable worse after it has been through the Composite input and the MPEG2 encoder on these cards, even at the highest available bit-rate (8-12 Mb/s).

That surprises me, as Composite video is pretty ordinary anyway, but if there is a noticeable difference between the source Composite video signal and the resulting MPEG2 version, then it suggests that the MPEG2 encoding is not up to scratch.

It is not too difficult to digitise and compress a Composite video signal so that there is no visible loss of quality - in fact, this processing chain could probably sharpen the image a little. If this was a Component/VGA source, or HDTV, then I would be more forgiving. But not when it is just ordinary old Composite.... :?

As I said, I have not actually used, nor seen the results (apart from the image BigBuddha posted earlier in this thread) from a Hauppauge card, so I could be way off track .... and happy to be proved wrong!

[jawbroken]

I suppose. I would think most of these hardware encoding card would use the same/similar ICs for MPEG2 encoding, is all. I would be suprised if there was a big difference in how this encoding was handled on different cards. I have never had an analogue hardware encoding card though, so I could be way off, perhaps cards handle this encoding in wildly different ways.

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by Callifo

they only supplied one video decoder unit so it can view/record from only one part of the card at a time.

You mean that if you are viewing/recording from the Composite/S-Video analog input, you cannot also view/record the analog TV?

But, you could view/record from the DVB-T section at the same time as you are viewing/recording from either the analog TV or the analog input?

[Callifo]

From what the rep said on the hauppauge site, you can only use either the analogue or dvb-t side because it only has 1 video decoder.

Only exception I could see would be the FM radio + dvb-t (but thats purely speculation)