Digital Terrestial Capture Cards?

[pmk]

Does anyone know if Digital Terrestial Capture Cards need any form of MPEG Encoder chip to save high CPU usage?  

I thought that Digital Terrestial output was quite close to the MPG standard so the streams probably do not need to be encoded?

Therefore all that GBPVR would need to do is save the stream direct from the card when / if this is supported?

TIA

[andrewm]

I'm a little shaky on this, must be 10 years since I've done MPEG chips but,

Digital terestrial is a transport stream, containing many 'streams' of video, audio, EPG et all, all wraped up in packets of 204 Bytes, with CRC's and time stamps.

MPEG II, as per DVD's, is 188 bytes.

I seem to remember there is software around that can strip off the wanted 'program' , and re sync the time stamps to 'presentation time stamps',

I did a quick YAHOO on transport streams, found quite a few referances, it can be done, at the chip level it's easy !

[sub]

No, they wont require an MPEG encoder as the stream is already MPEG encoded. In future will support cards with BDA drivers.

[pmk]

Quote[/b] (sub @ Jan. 02 2005,16:21)]No, they wont require an MPEG encoder as the stream is already MPEG encoded. In future will support cards with BDA drivers.

This is great news.  Is the support for these cards something that has been started and something may be available soon or is it quite some time away?

Is there anyway of finding out if a card comes with / supports BDA drivers?  I was thinking of the Hauppage Nova-t (two versions of this I think the newest is the 90002)?

TIA

[sub]

Quote[/b] ]Is the support for these cards something that has been started and something may be available soon or is it quite some time away?

It is something I've started, it'll either be in the next release or the one after. I have DVB-S support working (on my Nova-S), but am currently trying to find a way to make the few changes required to also support DVB-T. I dont have access to DVB-T signals here in New Zealand.

I'm fairly sure the Nova-T has BDA drivers.

[bgowland]

Quote[/b] (sub @ Jan. 03 2005,17:17)]I'm fairly sure the Nova-T has BDA drivers.

The newer 90002 drivers have native BDA support (as I understand it). The older version has BDA drivers that can be downloaded from the TechnoTrend website.

Quote[/b] (sub @ Jan. 03 2005,17:17)]I dont have access to DVB-T signals here in New Zealand.

I do here in the UK and I have a Nova-t 90002 card....if you happen to need a guinea pig...  

Cheers,
Brian

[pmk]

Quote[/b] (bgowland @ Jan. 04 2005,03:19)]I do here in the UK and I have a Nova-t 90002 card....if you happen to need a guinea pig...  

Brian as I am considering this card could you give any feedback on what you think?  

Where did you purchase from?  Want to make sure I get the latest version.

I am torn between a PVR150 or a Nova-t.  The PVR150 will give several PVR applications which are compatible but I ideally want Freeview support but PVR applications that support the terrestial digital cards are hard to find.

TIA

[jcupit]

I am also thinking of buying the Nova-T pci with the aim of building a media center (TV, DVD, MP3, JPG), and I really would like to use GB-PVR when support for this card is added.

Until then the best option seems to be ShowShifter DVB, which claims to support the Nova-T.

I would also be interested in anyones impressions of this card before I drop some cash on it.

Cheers,
cupit

[Guest]

Sub et all,

Freeview / DVB-T is the thing in the UK since the BBC took it over and made it FREE.

In some parts of the country ( like here in cambridge ) it's the only way to get more than 4 channels apart form expencive sat dishs.

I'd love a DVB-T suppoort,
For what it's worth,
The pinnacle 300i, looks nice,
The Hauppauge NOVA looks nice
My current favorite is the avermedia DVD-T 771

Sub, if you want some one to try out, I have a free machine ready and waiting !

[bgowland]

Quote[/b] (pmk @ Jan. 04 2005,04:35)]Brian as I am considering this card could you give any feedback on what you think?  

Where did you purchase from?  Want to make sure I get the latest version.

I bought my card from Ebuyer as they were the cheapest place that had them in stock. It is the latest 90002 card.

Mixed feelings really so far. I think from a hardware point of view it is fine but the Hauppauge software lets it down and there is a known bug (due to be fixed soon) which causes problems on XP SP2. It also doesn't seem to like other Hauppauge boards being in the same machine - I couldn't get it to work at all until I disabled my PVR350 and even then it consistently crashed during the tuning phase (the known bug). In the end I put it into my other machine to get it to work (also XP SP2 though - strange).

I know that sub is working on DVB-T support so if you're prepared to wait a while then obviously the Nova-t will give you all the Freeview channels. If you want something working now, however, then the PVR range look good (at least my 350 works fine for me).

Hope that helps,
Brian