[mythtv] Good Inexpensive capture card?

tarek Lubani mythtv-dev@snowman.net
Wed, 23 Oct 2002 20:45:20 -0400


OK, a couple of things.. Excuse me. I am pretty much a newbie, so I may get 
some of them wrong:


1) I bought my WinTV less than a week ago. It is a WinTV Go, model "700". 
It uses a BT878 I believe..

2) I do not at all see why it is not possible to use your digital 
receiver.. I am almost positive that you can execute commands on channel 
change.. This means that you can put on an IR transmitter 
(http://www.lirc.org/improved_transmitter.html) and have it change your 
channels for you.. Or, if you are one of those more lucky folk, you could 
hook up your com port directly into the rs232 of the receiver.. There is a 
lot of precedent for this with other systems such as showshifter or 
snapstream (http://www.snapstream.com/support/satellite.htm).

3) I just read some of the more recent messages on the list.. LIRC is 
definitely the way to go.. it can help you take *in* signals.. but in your 
case, you also need to transmit, and that takes some doing.. just remember 
that command:

str ExternalChannelCommand=changechannel

I put this in and set my command as "echo", and surely it works.. it echos 
the channels to where I want.. now all that's left is to hook it up to my out..

Hope this all helps. I agree about the "spotty" documentation.. I want to 
help clean this up as I go through my own trials and tribulations..

tarek : )

> > I have a WinTV that I just bought recently from www.ncix.com for not too
> >  much.. it has mono audio, since my audio comes straight from my
> > satellite  receiver.. It works fine, and is supported Ok..
> >
> > Not sure what's up, but you can always check on the chipset and insist
> > that  your retailer give you one with the chipsets that are known to
> > work.. These  would be listed in the v4l thingi..
> >
>Hmmm....  This is interesting.  I wonder what all the hoo-ha was over the
>WinTV cards.  How long ago did you buy it (round about)?
>
>Anyone else hear of other cards that work well with MythTV?
>
>
> > As for pipe dreams, I don't think so!! Mine works dandy!!
> >
>You are running it under satellite, right?  I'm going to try this with a
>digital cable set-up.  Does anyone know how the digital cable set-up
>works?  Do I use the cable box still to decode the signal or do I scrap
>the cable box altogether?
>
>Thanks much!
>Jeremy
>
>
> >>OK, I'm new to the list so if I'm asking questions outta turn let me
> >> know...
> >>
> >>So, I am looking for a good card to run MythTV on.  I was set to pick
> >> up a Hauppauge WinTV card by I have heard that Hauppauge changes the
> >> chipset and is no longer supported under V4L.  Can anyone confirm/deny
> >> this?  What are some of the other cards that are (1) easy to find, (2)
> >> cheap, (3) supported by V4L, and (4) decent quality.
> >>
> >>BTW, I currently have digital cable here in America.  Is MythTV just a
> >> pipedream for me?
> >>
> >>Thanks for all your help
> >>(again, if this is the wrong place for my post, please point me in the
> >> right direction...thanks!)