Need help with capture card selection (1 Viewer)

[wwwoholic]

I am building my first MP PC using spare parts from old computers. So, it is relatively low-power setup with P4 2.6.

The only required functionality is to capture non-HD S-Video + PCM audio from my satellite box onto local drive or file server (over Gigabit network), and to play it back using either mapped drive or uPnP AV streaming.

It is so happens that my capture hardware choices are limited to:

- ATI TV Wonder HD 650 based cards (by Visiontek, Diamond or ATI)
- Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600
- Hauppauge HD-PVR

HD-PVR seems like no-brainer choice without all those tuners and with HD support for future upgrades. However its system requirements are quite high. So, the questions:

- Does HD-PVR really need fast PC, or they list it only for playback mode? Because if it is only for playback I can always re-code captured H.264 file into MPEG2 and that can be played on even slower PC than mine.

- If HD-PVR is not an option for current setup then which one of the other two cards is better for video-only HTPC?

 

[wwwoholic]

Well... since no one answered I went ahead and got myself HVR 1600. Installed it yesterday and made it work... kinda.

MP viewing was sluggish and blurry. Attempt to record slowed everything and in about 5 minutes the audio was out of sync by 20 sec.

So, I installed PowerDirector (OEM from DVD drive) and WinTV (OEM from Hauppauge). WinTV immediately produced much better video quality and allowed me to record in 720x480 with no dropped frames. No audio either. Power Director also produces reasonable recordings with no sound, despite allowing me to specify my audio card as audio source.

I realize that all this has something to do with codecs and filters. Right after MP installation there were just a few of them. Both PowerDirector and WinTV installed their own. I decided that having this much garbage cant get ny worse and installed K-Lite Mega Pack. Now I have dozens of codecs and not a slightest idea what to do with them.

MediaPortal REALLY NEEDS "SETTINGS FOR DUMMIES" SECTION! Because online wiki and manuals do not have this quality. They either too technical or very basic.

... I decided to open a new thread regarding all this setup issues, since it goes way beyond hw selection.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Whenever you do this kind of hardware install, I really cannot emphasize enough that you start with a clean, fully upto date install of your OS, for codecs just use SAF found here https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-55/standalone-filters-mediaportal-saf-44614/

Any more necessary codecs should be installed by the hauppauge software, please get everything working with that first, before trying to install MP.

Also a DX9 graphics card with 256mb is recommended for MP.

 

[wwwoholic]

I have reinstalled OS about 10 times in last 5 days. This is not a problem for me since I made myself custom XP Pro install CD with all service packs, hotfixes, IE7, MP11, DX9 and .net slipstreamed and all the garbage like messenger, floppy drivers and such removed.

Radeon 9600 supports DX9 and just cool and fast enough for HTPC.

When you say "Hauppage software installed" do you mean driver only or WinTV/Ulead MovieFactory as well? Because driver does not install any codecs. Both WinTV and Ulead install a whole bunch, most of them I suspect are useless. Besides, why would I need WinTV if I am using SAF? Confused here

As for SAF... that's just the thing. Even with SAF there are still choices to be made, and I doubt everyone who builds HTPC knows a lot about filters/splitters/decoders and such. I've been working in IT for more than 20 years now, as programmer first, systems architect now, and I know zilch about video rendering.