About to buy a TVTuner just 4 MediaPortal! Help? - Page 2

Paul S · 2006-11-08, 17:04

I wanted to add something, you said that you want to watch cable TV with MP. I am not sure if MP supports this. If someone knows for sure that it supports analog cable, please let us know.

Paul

M4NDR4K3 · 2006-11-08, 17:36

Thanks Paul,
My laptop has the recommended requeriments for using the PINNACLE USB that I showed. Is compatible with MCE so hopefully will work with MediaPortal, I hope the control remote and all the stuff works also :-P

Thanks for ur time...

Hunter

James · 2006-11-08, 17:43

Hi M4NDR4K3,

Sorry my post was too technical. I will try to explain more simply. There are two (2) class of products on the market for analog TV.

1. TV Capture cards or USB boxes/sticks
2. TV Capture + encoder cards or USB boxes/sticks

The major difference that the encoder part, these devices have a chip (in hardware) which encodes the TV image into an mpeg2 format. Encoding real time into mpeg2 is quite a processor intensive task and these devices have deadicated hardware for that. Otherwise, this has to be done by the computer CPU.

Many users have problems with non hardware encoding TV cards have performace problems, because the CPU needs to encode the TV image and in most cases decode it again for display.

So it is also recommended to get a TV capture device that has a build in hardware encoder. For USB I believe the range is very limited. I personally do not know of any others except the hauppauge PVR range for USB.

On a personal note: I would not buy a Pinnacle product, and certainly not the 100E. I have tried one, because it was kicking around at work (came free with some PC for our lab), and was less then impressed.

Hope this helps,

/James

M4NDR4K3 · 2006-11-08, 17:59

It seems I'm screw :-P sucks to have a laptop now...

Thanks for ur time

M4NDR4K3

M4NDR4K3 · 2006-11-08, 18:47

James,
I've found this:
"One thing that seperates this TV Tuner/Capture box from the others is that it is Mpeg hardware encoded"
This is from this "cheap" USB device: "USB 2.0 TV Tuner/Capture Box/MPEG Encoder"

Just wanna know if that works like an Encoder, so it dosen't uses too much resources of my laptop...
It looks cheap, so I dunno if its gonna work fine in MediaPortal.. what are ur thoughts about this?

Thanks for ur time James, really...

Mandrake

James · 2006-11-08, 19:16

Hi M4NDR4K3,

It seems according to this website that this device does have built in hardware encoding.

"One thing that seperates this TV Tuner/Capture box from the others is that it is Mpeg hardware encoded. This allows for real-time MPEG2 and MPEG4 recording from practically any source. "

So this should work. I don't know anything about this device and the site does not provide much info. I searched on the product number and found this:

Philips 713x chipset USB2.0 Super Digital Video/TV Box - HY713X

at this site: http://www.everdeals.com/Merchant2/m...e=Videocapture
which is also cheaper

So maybe someone who has this device or know more about the Philips 713x chipset can comment.

Cheers,

/James

MZWiZard · 2006-11-08, 19:28

I had a cheap PCI card, that has a Philips 7134 chip. It came at $20 with remote, but unfortunately no hardware encoding, so I had to pass it on.

Paul S · 2006-11-08, 19:45

The Terratec Cinergy 400 is listed as supported with that chip.

M4NDR4K3 · 2006-11-08, 19:59

Thanks James and Paul S for making me smile lol...

So Paul S, if the Terractec Cinergy 400 uses the same cheap that means it should work with MediaPortal? I've click in the description and it says this: "This card is only supported with third-part MPEG-2 Encoders from either Cyberlink or InterVideo." What does this means?
Another question, why is under "Analog Software Encoding" shouldn't it be under "Analog Hardware Encoding"?

I'm sorry to bother with the SAME THING again, but this USB Device comes with a Control Remote (yay!), is there any chance that this works with MediaPortal?

It's great to know that people in the other side of the world took 5 minutes to reply something that is not big deal for them (but it is for me). Thank u guys!

M4NDR4K3

Paul S · 2006-11-08, 20:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by M4NDR4K3

Thanks James and Paul S for making me smile lol...

So Paul S, if the Terractec Cinergy 400 uses the same cheap that means it should work with MediaPortal? I've click in the description and it says this: "This card is only supported with third-part MPEG-2 Encoders from either Cyberlink or InterVideo." What does this means?

That means it should work, you may need to configure MP first. You also need to install a MPEG -2 encoder, as I explained earlier, MP encodes video files using the MPEG-2 encoder

Quote:

Another question, why is under "Analog Software Encoding" shouldn't it be under "Analog Hardware Encoding"?

This is not the same card, just the same chip. It can be use by many manufacturers in many different configurations.

Quote:

I'm sorry to bother with the SAME THING again, but this USB Device comes with a Control Remote (yay!), is there any chance that this works with MediaPortal?

It's great to know that people in the other side of the world took 5 minutes to reply something that is not big deal for them (but it is for me). Thank u guys!

M4NDR4K3

You will have to set up the remote seperately.

Paul

2006-11-08, 19:28	#17 (permalink)
MZWiZard Portal Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Age: 36 Posts: 48 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	I had a cheap PCI card, that has a Philips 7134 chip. It came at $20 with remote, but unfortunately no hardware encoding, so I had to pass it on. __________________ Friendly wishes, Jesper

2006-11-08, 19:59	#19 (permalink)
M4NDR4K3 Portal Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thanks James and Paul S for making me smile lol... So Paul S, if the Terractec Cinergy 400 uses the same cheap that means it should work with MediaPortal? I've click in the description and it says this: "This card is only supported with third-part MPEG-2 Encoders from either Cyberlink or InterVideo." What does this means? Another question, why is under "Analog Software Encoding" shouldn't it be under "Analog Hardware Encoding"? I'm sorry to bother with the SAME THING again, but this USB Device comes with a Control Remote (yay!), is there any chance that this works with MediaPortal? It's great to know that people in the other side of the world took 5 minutes to reply something that is not big deal for them (but it is for me). Thank u guys! M4NDR4K3 Last edited by M4NDR4K3; 2006-11-08 at 20:15.

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2006-11-08, 17:04	#11 (permalink)
Paul S Portal Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Franklin, WI (Milwaukee) Age: 51 Posts: 361 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	I wanted to add something, you said that you want to watch cable TV with MP. I am not sure if MP supports this. If someone knows for sure that it supports analog cable, please let us know. Paul

2006-11-08, 17:36	#12 (permalink)
M4NDR4K3 Portal Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thanks Paul, My laptop has the recommended requeriments for using the PINNACLE USB that I showed. Is compatible with MCE so hopefully will work with MediaPortal, I hope the control remote and all the stuff works also :-P Thanks for ur time... Hunter

2006-11-08, 17:43	#13 (permalink)
James Portal Developer Join Date: May 2005 Location: Switzerland Posts: 1,348 Thanks: 4 Thanked 55 Times in 34 Posts	Hi M4NDR4K3, Sorry my post was too technical. I will try to explain more simply. There are two (2) class of products on the market for analog TV. 1. TV Capture cards or USB boxes/sticks 2. TV Capture + encoder cards or USB boxes/sticks The major difference that the encoder part, these devices have a chip (in hardware) which encodes the TV image into an mpeg2 format. Encoding real time into mpeg2 is quite a processor intensive task and these devices have deadicated hardware for that. Otherwise, this has to be done by the computer CPU. Many users have problems with non hardware encoding TV cards have performace problems, because the CPU needs to encode the TV image and in most cases decode it again for display. So it is also recommended to get a TV capture device that has a build in hardware encoder. For USB I believe the range is very limited. I personally do not know of any others except the hauppauge PVR range for USB. On a personal note: I would not buy a Pinnacle product, and certainly not the 100E. I have tried one, because it was kicking around at work (came free with some PC for our lab), and was less then impressed. Hope this helps, /James

2006-11-08, 17:59	#14 (permalink)
M4NDR4K3 Portal Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	It seems I'm screw :-P sucks to have a laptop now... Thanks for ur time M4NDR4K3

2006-11-08, 18:47	#15 (permalink)
M4NDR4K3 Portal Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	James, I've found this: "One thing that seperates this TV Tuner/Capture box from the others is that it is Mpeg hardware encoded" This is from this "cheap" USB device: "USB 2.0 TV Tuner/Capture Box/MPEG Encoder" Just wanna know if that works like an Encoder, so it dosen't uses too much resources of my laptop... It looks cheap, so I dunno if its gonna work fine in MediaPortal.. what are ur thoughts about this? Thanks for ur time James, really... Mandrake

2006-11-08, 19:16	#16 (permalink)
James Portal Developer Join Date: May 2005 Location: Switzerland Posts: 1,348 Thanks: 4 Thanked 55 Times in 34 Posts	Hi M4NDR4K3, It seems according to this website that this device does have built in hardware encoding. "One thing that seperates this TV Tuner/Capture box from the others is that it is Mpeg hardware encoded. This allows for real-time MPEG2 and MPEG4 recording from practically any source. " So this should work. I don't know anything about this device and the site does not provide much info. I searched on the product number and found this: Philips 713x chipset USB2.0 Super Digital Video/TV Box - HY713X at this site: http://www.everdeals.com/Merchant2/m...e=Videocapture which is also cheaper So maybe someone who has this device or know more about the Philips 713x chipset can comment. Cheers, /James

2006-11-08, 19:45	#18 (permalink)
Paul S Portal Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Franklin, WI (Milwaukee) Age: 51 Posts: 361 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	The Terratec Cinergy 400 is listed as supported with that chip.