[mythtv-users] MythTV and analogue TV

[Raymond Wagner]

On 2/19/2011 18:05, Malte Gell wrote:
> Raymond Wagner<raymond at wagnerrp.com>  wrote
>
>> On 2/19/2011 17:39, Malte Gell wrote:
>>> I have a Terratec Cinergy Hybrid stick. I do not intend to use DB-T,
>>> instead I want to use an analogue cable signal. After all, can MythTV
>>> handle analogue TV or only DVB like kaffeine?
>> MythTV can handle analog framegrabbers such as your tuner, but MPEG
>> encoders are preferred.  If you need USB, try an old PVR-USB, or a new
>> HVR-1900.  Otherwise, you could use a PVR-150, PVR-500, or HVR-2250.
> What means "MPEG encoders are preferred", do they have a chip than encodes
> MPEG? The Cinergy Hybrid is a USB device, will that work?

MPEG is a series of specifications for compressed video.  In this case, 
MPEG encoder cards output MPEG2 video and MPEG Layer 2 audio, in an 
MPEG2 container.  With the tuner card handling all the capture, 
encoding, and multiplexing, it is much easier to configure for recording 
in MythTV, as well as much lighter on your system.  Framegrabbers, such 
as your tuner card, simply expose a sequence of video frames in a 
section of memory, which MythTV has to then capture, compress, and 
synchronize with a separate audio stream.  Its a hassle to deal with, 
easy to screw up, and causes significant CPU load to do in real time.