[mythtv-users] Re: recording HD content

[Neil]

Hi Brad, 

Brad Templeton writes: 

> On Tue, Apr 12, 2005 at 01:34:57AM -0500, Neil wrote:
>> Hi Joe, 
>> Hmmm. I think, if we send out the HD stream via s-video, quality is already 
>> degraded. Also, quality of s-video is just ok. Is there a way to preserve 
>> it just like how we do it in Air2PC? Remember, s-video is analog. HD 
>> content is digital. 
> 
> Not just that, s-video is NTSC.  It's SDTV, or slightly less actually.
> It's not of interest to people who want HD. 
> 
>> I would like to know if someone is doing this kind of recording. How is the 
>> picture quality? But will it really be able record the HD content if the 
>> receiver has an svideo out? 
> 
> Receivers that put out s-video either don't put it out for HD, or they down-convert
> it to SD.  Not of use. 
> 
> There are no capture cards for HD that don't cost studio prices (many thousands
> of dollars.)   People sometimes call the pcHDTV-3000 and air2pc "capture cards"
> but they aren't.  They are tuner/demodulators that let you record an already
> digitized and compressed byte-stream and nothing else. 
> 
> 
> However, on the plus side, on my cable system (comcast bay area) they do provide
> several HD channels in the clear over QAM.   Not just the locals, but also
> ESPN-HD and Discovery HD, as well as some SD digital channels (OLN, History and
> a couple of others.) 
> 
> However, the bad news is, it could end at any time.  (the ESPN and Discovery) 
> 
> Other people have been able to get boxes that put the HD out firewire.  Also
> great, but also could end at any time. 
> 
> The locals won't end (though they might drop to SD on the firewire) but the
> non-locals could go away.

Thanks for the tip Brad. I'm looking into firewire but on my other posts, 
the guy told me that it may soon be encrypted too. :(