Video Card with SPDIF built in?

[IchiroBoston]

Hi,

I tried searching but could not find an answer.

Im thinking of building a SnapStream DVR but cant find a video capture card that has SPDIF (Optical or RF) inputs built in. Is there any?

Im trying to build a system with 2-4 Tuner (Capture) cards with SPDIF input.

It does not have to be a "tuner" card, capture only is ok since im going to use my DirecTV tuners.

Thanks!
Ichiro

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by IchiroBoston

Hi,

I tried searching but could not find an answer.

Im thinking of building a SnapStream DVR but cant find a video capture card that has SPDIF (Optical or RF) inputs built in. Is there any?

Im trying to build a system with 2-4 Tuner (Capture) cards with SPDIF input.

It does not have to be a "tuner" card, capture only is ok since im going to use my DirecTV tuners.

Thanks!
Ichiro

I don't think you are going to find a "video" card (capture or what-ever) with that type of "audio" feature. Most capture/tuner cards only have some kind of aux. type inputs for video and "stereo audio".

I assume you have SPDIF output from your Direct TV box and want to feed that to your PVR PC. I think you would go to the SPDIF input of the PC's sound card if so equipped. My HTPC has SPDIF in and out .. and although I'm not using it yet, plan to in the near future. In my case I would only be using the SPDIF output of the PC's sound card.

Here's a thread in this forum with a lot more information for you in case you havn't seen it.

S/PDIF Explained...

[tallcajun]

Originally Posted by IchiroBoston

Hi,

I tried searching but could not find an answer.

Im thinking of building a SnapStream DVR but cant find a video capture card that has SPDIF (Optical or RF) inputs built in. Is there any?

Ichiro

SP/DIF is for sound. You will not find a video card that supports that. What you can find, is a motherboard or a sound card that does. Before I offer a few suggestions, I'll say that you might need to do a bit more research for hardware. Are you specifically looking for SP/Diff in or out? DVD players have SP/Diff out, to go to an amplifier. Personally, my needs are for SP/Diff out, I don't care about sp/diff in, or optical in, since I don't have a DirecTv.

If you want a PC that has almost everything except the capture card, there are some shuttle pc's that have everything you need except the capture card. Personally, I have the Shuttle 6164, and its got optical in/out as well as sp/dif in/out. However, I wanted my pvr pc to look like stereo equipment, so I built the one I did (see my sig for my parts list).

If you don't want to get a new case, etc, then you could look into a few motherboards, specifically the Nforce 2 type motherboards, HOWEVER, be careful witht that choice. Some of the NForce boards don't have the right setup. The reason I chose the motherboard I did, was because it had an ONBOARD AC3 decoder, which means all of my sound connections to my amp are handled by one cable, if its a dvd, it plays Dobly 5.1 or DTS directly to my amp (SP/DIFF Passthrough), and other sounds like TV, or recordings are converted to digital input using the onboard AC3 decoder. Its really a sweet setup.

Another sound board is the Audigy sound board that does great sound.

Each has its own good and bad virtures, but for my situation, the NForce motherboard was the best combination.

[IchiroBoston]

Thanks for the reply.

I know SPDIF is for audio, currently im using SPDIF for everything on my setup.
DVD, DirecTv, TIVO...etc even my Airport Extreme is hooked up with optical SPDIF.
I think its the only way you can get true 5.1 audio right? (unless you break out all 6 channels or use coax digital)

It would be a nice thing if there was a video capture card with SPDIF built in just for physical space issues. I dont want to take up two slots, one for video and the other for SPDIF in.

Im also assuming theres no such thing as a HDMI or DVI Capture card? So I can capture HDTV from a sat or cable tuner?

Does BeyondTV support SPDIF input?

Thanks!
Ichiro

[jarndt]

I'm looking for similar information. I found out that ATI makes a capture card call Theater Pro 550 that does support Optical In but only support the encoding of Dolby Digital 2.0. I haven't purchased on yet but it is my understanding that with this card and a sound card that support digital out you can get digtal sound to an external reciever.

I would appreciated confirmation of the above if anyone can contribute.