[mythtv-users] Multi-Input Cards

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Fri Sep 10 15:54:50 UTC 2010


On Friday, September 10, 2010 09:11:28 am Eric Sharkey wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 10:59 AM, Devin Heitmueller
> 
> <dheitmueller at kernellabs.com> wrote:
> > On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 10:25 AM, mike at grounded.net <mike at grounded.net> wrote:
> >> Are there any multi-input capture cards which are known to work with
> >> myth. For example, say 2 to 4 ports of either/or a combination of
> >> composite, s-video or component inputs? Perhaps even being able to add
> >> more than one card into a system?
> > 
> > There aren't many cards which have multiple video decoders, as they
> > are typically targeted at surveillance DVRs.  You can look at the
> > HVR-2250 which has two ports, or the Hauppauge ImpactVCB, which has
> > three or four composite inputs).  Both of these should work under
> > Linux (although the HVR-2250 analog support is brand new and probably
> > still has some issues).
> 
> For SD analog input, the Hauppauge PVR-500 should fit the bill.  It
> has two encoders and is well supported.

The real question is do you want something that can let you record 2 or 4 channels at once, or a single card that has 2 or 
4 inputs?

Also, do you need on-board encoding, or do you plan to use software encoding.

A unit with 4 encoders would be expensive, a pair of PVR-500s is probably the only easy Myth-compatible solution.

But software encoding of 4 streams at once would be a real load on the CPU.

It really depends on your precise application. If it's a security or just a monitoring process you can get a multiplexer 
that will take 4 analog inputs and put them onto a single NTSC screen, which would then require only a single encoder.

If you want 4 standard Myth encoders, you will need either 4 PVR encoders (2 500s), or a LOT of CPU to encode 4 frame 
grabbers at once.





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