Where does HDTV encoding start and end?

[manowell]

I don't have a HD TV or receiver yet, but it's planned and coming soon. Trying to figure out how to give up as little flexibility as possible....

I now have two DirecTV receivers that go to two tuner cards on a BeyondTV HTPC. So far, I really, really like this. I can tell BeyondTV to record all manner of stuff, it manages the program guide and the two receivers.

Right now for DirecTV it seems like you have two choices: Samsung HD receiver for ~$300, or Samsung HD receiver with PVR for ~$1000. I'd rather spend the $700 on something OTHER than another PVR that doesn't integrate to the one that I have and like, unless I HAVE to use the built-in one to record HD.

I've been told that the only way to record HD from satellite or cable boxes is to use an integrated PVR. Off-air uses one encoding method and set-top boxes use another? I've heard the acronyms but don't have them memorized.

Anyway: If I had a component video input card for my BeyondTV (not sure that there IS one, but assuming there WAS) (and assuming that HD recording really is on the way for BTV) could it record from the component outputs of the standard Samsung HD receiver? What do I give up by this?

Does anyone know of any other decent workarounds?

By the way, my intended use(s): I currently record and watch eight to ten series TV shows, most are available on HD from one of the major networks or SciFi channel. Less frequently record movies off premium movie channels (HBO, etc). If it's a movie that I can't buy on DVD I sometimes burn it for keeping, not many of these. I'm currently burning one TV series for keeping (Lost), just watch and delete the rest.

Thanks for any ideas, pointers, or tips!

[rtd3]

I have been trying to do the same thing as far as recoring HDTV. There are several cards out there that I have seen from other message boards like ExtremeTech (ExtremeTech ) and AVSForum (AVSForum).

http://www.pluggedin.tv/sweetspot/

The main issue to me is having BTV support any of the encoders that support YUV or RGB Inputs.

Let me know if you find out anything else... I'm ready to start building a HTPC, but want to wait until I can record HDTV (from an external source -- Cable Box, Sattelite, etc)

[HowardGilbert]

HDTV is Digital TV in a higher resolution. What is transmitted is MPEG 2 encoded TV (in small packets called "transport stream", different from the "program stream" of DVD or BTV recording). Direct broadcast from station to a old fashioned TV antenna on your roof uses one modulation technique called 8VSB and works with some available PC Tuners (Hauppauge, Dvico). You can record shows to disk, because the card takes the MPEG 2 digital data from the broadcast and simply writes it as data to disk.

Other sources, like HDTV over cable, use a different modulation called QAM. Dvico makes a QAM receiver card, but in the US all these sources encrypt the stream. There is a new CableCard system for "digital cable ready" TV sets. You get a card from the cable company and plug it into your own equipment rather than getting a set top box. In the future, one of the PC adapter vendors could build a QAM receiver card with CableCard capability. Then they could also record the original MPEG 2 stream directly to disk. (Although there was some FCC regulation with the "broadcast bit" that may prevent this).

Currently there are no cards that can sample HDTV component input and digitize it. If they could, current processors cannot keep up with the burden of compressing the data stream in real time. Besides, it makes no technical sense to take what starts out as an MPEG 2 digital stream, expand it, convert it to analog, sample it back to digital, and then struggle to recompress it.

Existing HD PVR products work by capturing the original digital MPEG 2 transport stream, but they do it inside a licensed set top box from the service vendor. There are no technical problems here. It's all business practice and licensing. Don't expect any solutions soon.

[rtd3]

Thank you for the explanation...

Can you clear up on more misunderstanding on my part? I was not aware that the on the component video outs of a cable box (or DVD player) that the signal was truly digital, thus no encryption. Is that not the case?

I did not think my older HDTV had any type (QAM?) decryption hardware, only the signal it gets from the component video in it gets from the HD Cable box.

Thanks for helping...

Rob

[Fonceur]

The problem with capturing the component part has to do with the amount of informations... There are professional products that do that but for thousands of dollars. On the SageTV front, some kind of plugin is being developped to use the firewire output: http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ead.php?t=9288.