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Thaidog
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 1053
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 Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:58 pm Post subject: What's a good TV tuner for Gentoo? |
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I'm looking for a TV tuner to use with Gentoo. I want to be able to watch digital cable so it needs to have s video (which I'm guessing most do.)
It would also be great if there was a tuner card out there that would work directly with Digital Cable or Dish Network. I think that's asking too much maybe though. |
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Versable
n00b
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 63
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immudium
Guru
Joined: 12 Oct 2004
Posts: 332
Location: Utah
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:06 am Post subject: Re: What's a good TV tuner for Gentoo? |
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| Thaidog wrote: | I'm looking for a TV tuner to use with Gentoo. I want to be able to watch digital cable so it needs to have s video (which I'm guessing most do.)
It would also be great if there was a tuner card out there that would work directly with Digital Cable or Dish Network. I think that's asking too much maybe though. |
Well, you need to explain better what you mean by digital cable. I have digital cable and it basically consists of four distinct parts:
1. Unencrypted analog
2. Unencrypted high definition digital
3. Encrypted analog
4. Encrypted high definition digital
For input 1, I use a PVR-150 and a PVR-500.
For input 2, I use an Airstar HD-5000 and a pcHDTV HD-5500 (I also have two HD-3000s as well which I use for over the air HDTV, but I would not recommend them for cable HDTV i.e. QAM)
For inputs 3 and 4, I use the firewire output from the cable box which can be used to both change the channel via MythTV and digitally record the signal from the cable box. It is a Motorola DCT-6200.
If your digital cable service is similar, I would highly recommend any of the above cards which you can find links to via the link that Versable provided. I have never had Dish Network and can't say if it can be controlled and captured from as easily as the DCT-6200. However, all the above cards and inputs are controlled through multiple MythTV boxes all running x86 gentoo and they all work flawlessly. I hope that helps you make your decisions.
Oh and by the way, I've never had to use the S-Video inputs on any of my cards. If that's your only option, however, be aware that all of the above cards do provide S-Video input except for the Airstar, but S-Video is a pain to work with since audio must be handled separately through your sound card. Avoid it if you can! |
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Hobbes-X
l33t
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 823
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 2:30 pm Post subject: Re: What's a good TV tuner for Gentoo? |
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| immudium wrote: |
For inputs 3 and 4, I use the firewire output from the cable box which can be used to both change the channel via MythTV and digitally record the signal from the cable box. It is a Motorola DCT-6200.
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You're able to pull encrypted data off of the STB? I wasn't aware that was possible. Care to share how that's done? Or did you mean encoded instead of encrypted?
| Quote: |
If your digital cable service is similar, I would highly recommend any of the above cards which you can find links to via the link that Versable provided. I have never had Dish Network and can't say if it can be controlled and captured from as easily as the DCT-6200. However, all the above cards and inputs are controlled through multiple MythTV boxes all running x86 gentoo and they all work flawlessly. I hope that helps you make your decisions. |
I'll second the vote for a firewire-capable set-top box. It's ridiculously easy to setup, no fiddling with audio, no worries about audio/video sync, channel changing support is built in, so no IR Blaster or anything, and less cables and equipment too. No experience personally with the HDTV cards, but I can say that I really like my PVR-250 too. PVR-150's are probably the better bang for buck however...
| Quote: | | Oh and by the way, I've never had to use the S-Video inputs on any of my cards. If that's your only option, however, be aware that all of the above cards do provide S-Video input except for the Airstar, but S-Video is a pain to work with since audio must be handled separately through your sound card. Avoid it if you can! |
I agree with this too  I keep planning on using my PVR250's s-video input to handle the 5C encrypted channels that can't be sent over firewire (as far as I know, immudium doesn't seem to have this issue...) but I keep putting it off, beacause I don't feel like messing around with the pain of capturing the audio separately. Especially since I want to use optical for digital input. |
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immudium
Guru
Joined: 12 Oct 2004
Posts: 332
Location: Utah
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 6:00 pm Post subject: Re: What's a good TV tuner for Gentoo? |
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| Hobbes-X wrote: |
You're able to pull encrypted data off of the STB? I wasn't aware that was possible. Care to share how that's done? Or did you mean encoded instead of encrypted?
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You know, I'm not really sure if it's encrypted or not. They told me they were encrypted when I signed up, but I didn't do anything special so it sounds like they must just be encoded. I can't watch them without the cable box like I can with the local HD stations, but all I did was plug in the firewire cable and it worked. That said, my cable provider is owned by the city I live in, which is rather small and I've noticed they sometimes slip up or provide incorrect information. On the other hand they only offer two premium HD channels, ESPN HD and HDNET. No really good HD channels like HBO, Bravo or Universal HD, so I'm not really getting much other than ice skating.  |
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Hobbes-X
l33t
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 823
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:07 pm Post subject: Re: What's a good TV tuner for Gentoo? |
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| immudium wrote: | | That said, my cable provider is owned by the city I live in, which is rather small and I've noticed they sometimes slip up or provide incorrect information. On the other hand they only offer two premium HD channels, ESPN HD and HDNET. No really good HD channels like HBO, Bravo or Universal HD, so I'm not really getting much other than ice skating. |
Heh, of course 
It's certainly possible that they're not encrypted, I've seen reports that some cable providers don't while others do on the same stations. There's a status screen on the Motorolla 62xx's you can check to see if the channel is 5C encrypted or not, but as I have heard there's no 5C compatable PC interfaces yet, so the the only way out is the analog hole through another capture card's s-video/composite input. |
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Thaidog
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 1053
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Wow a firewire cable box! My old one had a usb port but I never messed with it. Thanks for the options. I'll look in to it once I have everything online. |
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96140
Retired Dev
Joined: 23 Jan 2005
Posts: 1324
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| Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 1:56 am Post subject: |
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Based on this Linux.com article, you might want to take a look at the HD-5500. This card is specifically made for Linux, so it is completely supported (there aren't even any Windows or Mac drivers available).
I was tipped off to this card by a recent planet.gentoo.org post by Steve Dibb, aka beandog. |
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Thaidog
Veteran
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 1053
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| Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:33 am Post subject: |
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| nightmorph wrote: | Based on this Linux.com article, you might want to take a look at the HD-5500. This card is specifically made for Linux, so it is completely supported (there aren't even any Windows or Mac drivers available).
I was tipped off to this card by a recent planet.gentoo.org post by Steve Dibb, aka beandog. |
Interesting but I'm looking for a tuner that works with XP and Linux... this is because the system is a dual boot configuration. |
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