Any support for "showsqueeze" as yet?

[stuck-in-second]

New forum member so point me to the right thread is this has been answered already a thousand times.

As a long time Beyond TV user I could really use the ability compress the video files down for long term archiving. BTV would do that quite well, and automatically, using (in my case) the DIVX codec.

I'm not seeing anything in NextPVR for such a feature.

Thanks!

[sub]

Sorry, I have no plans to add anything like this. Disk is cheap these days. Also, having to worry about other containers and codecs etc just makes things difficult for client/server support and other features etc. I think life is much easier and less problematic if you just keep your recordings in the original digital broadcast tv format.

[mvallevand]

Another option for HD which is a lot easier on your PC is the Silicondust HDTC. QAM/OTA digital mpeg2 to h264 on-the-fly with several compression settings.

Martin

[stuck-in-second]

Martin:

Took a peak at this unit. Does not support the use of M-cards for decryption which my cable system is going to in one month.

I have the Hauppauge 2650 dual tuner box. Similar I now know from "sub" as the HDHomeRun box.

Can I use more than one of these USB devices with NextPVR on the same computer? That way use one for full HD and the other to record a small version at the same air time... or two different formats of the same channel on one unit at the same time?

[sub]

Does not support the use of M-cards for decryption which my cable system is going to in one month.

Unfortunately, no they only do ATSC and QAM, not cablecard.

[stuck-in-second]

Unfortunately, no they only do ATSC and QAM, not cablecard.

OK. But what about the second question I posed. Meant for that to refer to what I'm now using... the HomeRun/Hauppauge 2650 dual tuner USB box?

Basically... can you have more than one USB Hauppauge tuner on the same computer running at the same time and can one tuner or one box be recording at a lower resolution/higher compression scheme at the same time?

Thereby making an "archive" version in real time.

[sub]

Sure, you can have two tuners installed, and recordings from the 'Silicondust HDTC' can be configured for some lower resolution/bitrate (in the SiliconDust software).

You can choose to either combine the channels, effectively creating a pool of tuners available for those channels, and the app will just choose one (you can specify a device preference, like preferring the HDTC, but you cannot explicitly say recording X must use tuner Y). Or you can have a separate set of channels for each device, allowing you to explicitly schedule on the HDTC channel or 2650 channel.

[stuck-in-second]

I have two Hauppauge 2650's at the moment, actually. You mentioned it was similar to the HD unit so that's why I bring it up.

Both have tested M-cards from the cable co. as of this morning. Only one connected to my PC right now.

So speaking only about this unit... here is the plan...

The Hauppauge WinTV 8 program does let you pick a data rate. So I can go there and set one device (dual tuner) to a "good" data rate of around 6Mb/sec as I use now and make the other tuner a lower Mb/sec. Maybe 2mb/sec.

Set both to record same channels, same time (not sure how this will work, conflict wise, but will try) and get two versions of every show.

Is this what you suggest?

[sub]

The Hauppauge WinTV 8 program does let you pick a data rate. So I can go there and set one device (dual tuner) to a "good" data rate of around 6Mb/sec as I use now and make the other tuner a lower Mb/sec. Maybe 2mb/sec.

Actually that's not correct. With these digital tuners you always get the bitrate the broadcaster supplies. Same is true in WinTV 8. ie, these devices don't have encoders on them so can't reencode the streams to different bitrates.

Set both to record same channels, same time (not sure how this will work, conflict wise, but will try) and get two versions of every show.

Is this what you suggest?

As mentioned above, you have no control over the bitrate with 2650 device, so would just get two identical files.

[stuck-in-second]

With these digital tuners you always get the bitrate the broadcaster supplies.... so can't reencode the streams to different bitrates.

I see. My old Hauppauge PVR-150 analog cards DO have hardware mpeg2 encoding so that's how I asked that question. Was not aware that was lacking in these devices : (

Maybe I was not following your train of thought in your 2:26 post, above correctly. I must have mis read... or got my hopes up... but as I read it now you never suggested I could get both high and low data rate files off the same show. And now I know that is not possible unless done after the fact.

That said, and now understood, can you see any options? Are any of the folks on this site working on some kind of app or bat file that can "serve" completed files to a program like Handbrake which, I think, allows this to be done somehow and very decent h.264 files created?

If not, is that worth asking or ??