[mythtv-users] Cheapest card for capturing with MythTV?

[Andrew Dodd]

Quoting "Anderson, Rob (Global Trade)" <Rob.Anderson at nike.com>:

> I have one of these.
> 
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2791201936&category=3761
> 
> Cheers,
Note that a lot of the claims made in that eBay ad are misleading.

All of the MPEG encoding capabilities of the "card" are not capabilities of the
card - The card captures raw video which must be encoded by the CPU.

The general consensus is:  If you get a dumb capture card, you can do well for
$20-30, but you'll need a beefy CPU and your system will not be very expandable.
 (Only a VERY highend processor can even think about recording two simultaneous
streams at high resolution.)

If you spend $80 (Avermedia M179) to $130 (PVR-250), you will not have to worry
about CPU speed during encoding at all, and your system will be easily
expandable to 2,3, or even more capture sources.  (The most I've heard of is 4
tuners in one box, and the limit there was PCI slots and lack of a need for more
than 4 tuners, not CPU.)