Computer cards (ATSC RX)

[Gregg Lengling]

I've been starting to look into getting a PCI card for my computer to receive DTV.  I know I know, I already have the capability at home, but with the RCA I have their is no provision for outputs or recording.  I was thinking about it and wondered if anyone had played with the cards.   Of course the more I think about it, the more I would really like to record stuff from the satellite so this won't help me...maybe I should just get an interface card and a separate STB for my computer and handle it all there.   If my wife only knew what a can of worms she opened when she got me this HDTV thing...now I'll have to expand my equipment rack to handle a new computer and I'll have to have one with a couple 100GB drives so I have recording space.


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Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
gregg@camelcomm.com

[tenth_t2]

I've been in the same boat lately as well.  The HiPix DTV200 appears to be able to record HD and NTSC, and runs about $400.  I've been looking at the ATI All In Wonder Radeon as well, however they don't include the DTV tuner as of my last look.

Still on the fence though with respect to if I want another pc though, and I would build this chassis solely for this task really.

Hmmmm..... Stay fuzzy-- Save the world.  Choices...

[Joseph S]

I have the HiPix card. It works very well and there are a group of programmers working on open source versions of the software. Their latest Beta is a big step up.

Dolby Digital 5.1 is available from the daughter card(included), though only the Olympics  have contained DD so far. I have been unable to remap it to the sound card, others have with different cards. The tuner allows you to remap stations to your liking, for example instead of 1.1 you can switch it to 58.1. I have had trouble receiving the Episode Guide Info since using the open source betas. However, they have integrated into the app TitanTV's website content so that you can view schedules and select items to record.

You can receive ATSC and NTSC, however you can only record ATSC. It takes about 4GB of space per hour to record and the data is uncompressed. For disk space, I have a 120GB Western Digital external firewire drive and an internal 40GB with about 20 GB free. Demo clips and stuff I haven't gotten around to watching are transfered to my Mac's extra 120GB Wester Digital drive via the firewire drive. You don't need a fast drive, people get along well with 5400RPM drives and I record to the firewire drive directly.

[Gregg Lengling]

Joe is all this work being done on Mac's or are there people developing apps for Windoz....2000 XP ect.


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Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
gregg@camelcomm.com

[Joseph S]

 

Joe is all this work being done on Mac's or are there people developing apps for Windoz....2000 XP ect.

Unfortunately, none of it is being done on Mac/Linux/or Unix. The HiPix is Windows only and when I asked about the open source project they stated that they had no one working on OS X drivers for the card.

There are tons of HD/SDI cards for producing HD material on a Mac, but nothing to do a simple thing like receiving the signal and recording.

[Gregg Lengling]

Okay final question....are you happy with the card? (okay final questions).  How much did it cost, where did you get it, and was the documentation good enough that you had it up and running in a short period.  I ask this because I'm thinking about building a PC to go in my audio rack just for Video and am trying to decide to go with a card with a receiver or without.  If I go with one without I can add a STB with Directv and be able to record HBO and Showtime also.  What do you think???


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Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
gregg@camelcomm.com

[Joseph S]

   

Okay final question....are you happy with the card?

Very satisfied.

   

How much did it cost, where did you get it, and was the documentation good enough that you had it up and running in a short period.

Store (AVS recommended/but they seem to be backordered at the moment):
 http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/hipix.htm

Price:$399+Shipping

Documentation: http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/hipix.htm  http://www.telemann.com/datadown/HiPixV2.31/HiPix_Manual_Rev1.2.pdf

Latest Drivers: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=01fadb349cc9f97ab867ae21425990  b4&threadid=132909

I had it up and running in under an hour. Installation is a little tricky only because it requires a full size PCI slot and you need to connect three internal cables to the daughter card. The output is via a VGA connector. You either use a VGA breakout cable if your TV can handle that or a VGA/Component adapter. The Audio Authority adapter is the one I use since my TV only has component ins. The driver and application installations are fairly simple. I had it working on Win2K, but have only used the betas on XP because the Win 2k drivers for my Radeon VE Video card were nothing but trouble.

 

If I go with one without I can add a STB with Directv and be able to record HBO and Showtime also. What do you think???

I'm not sure about this. I believe you can only record OTA and HD Cable signals put out in cities like New York that are unencrypted.

Minor Correction: The only way to record HBO-HD (via satellite) is with the Dish 5000 & 8VSB modulator. It is impossible to record HBO-HD off of DirecTV.

(http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=01fadb349cc9f97ab867ae21425990b4&threadid=117229&highlight=hipix+hbo)


[This message has been edited by Joseph S (edited 05-02-2002).]

[tenth_t2]

So you still have a Radeon VE as the primary video card it sounds like?  If I were to choose one of their AIW products, that would allow me to record NTSC as well.  I guess the question is why though, since it would be a different software app to do the recording?  Might as well just stick to my S-VHS for NTSC maybe.

So you obviously have a large drive for data storage, what does the rest of the setup look like in terms of cpu & memory?  I'm thinking along the lines of an Athalon about 1.2~1.5 (whatever is near the $80-100 range), probably an ASUS mb with ultra 100 IDE, and probably 512mb ram.  Although I do have a 400 with 512mb that I could just add a big disk to and maybe get an add on Ultra 100 card.

So at 4gb/hr, that equates to about 67Mb per minute, about 1.2Mb/s that you need to be able to sustain to/from the disk.  That seems pretty doable.

Thanks for starting the thread Greg, and for your excellent insight Joe!

Greg O.

[Gregg Lengling]

Joe, I wonder if you would be up to a personal demonstration or maybe even a field trip of the group to see your computerized HDTV setup.  I for one am very interested and would like to get with you and see it so I don't make a $$$ mistake.  It's always nice to have someone else on the cutting edge to pave the way for us.


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Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
gregg@camelcomm.com

[Joseph S]

Unfortunately, I can't at this time but perhaps later this summer. I've got finals and then I'm going to my sister's college graduation, followed by a brief vacation, and then I've got to prepare for and take my National Board exams.