convertx box questions...

[philhu]

A couple of ConvertX questions....I am looking for good quality, but storing a tone of video, so mpeg4, with it's slightly more lose technology, seems a perfect fit. Video I get on the internet is about 700-800meg/hour. Is that already divx or mpeg-4? Things like enterprise in widescreen on my 62" set look pretty good at 800meg/hour.

Is the convertx a USB device?
Can you attach more than one to do multiple tuners (like 3) in SageTV?

It is MPEG-4 and divx. Can the SageTV client read/use the mpeg4 files out of the box or are modifications needed?

Can it be controlled by a usb-uirt like everything else is?

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by philhu

A couple of ConvertX questions....I am looking for good quality, but storing a tone of video, so mpeg4, with it's slightly more lose technology, seems a perfect fit. Video I get on the internet is about 700-800meg/hour. Is that already divx or mpeg-4? Things like enterprise in widescreen on my 62" set look pretty good at 800meg/hour.

DivX encoding is a cousin or spin-off of "standard" MPEG-4. I haven't used the non-DivX MPEG-4 recording qualities in quite a while (because they don't seem to be working in any of the Beta's), but as I recall DivX Highest looked a little bit better than MPEG-4 Highest.

Frey asked me to send them some files to troubleshoot the MPEG-4 recording problem in the beta, but I haven't had the time to do it yet. I suspect it will get fixed before SageTV version 3 is here.

Originally Posted by philhu

Is the convertx a USB device?
Can you attach more than one to do multiple tuners (like 3) in SageTV?

USB 2.0 is mandatory. Unfortunately, it does not appear multiple ConvertX's work w/ SageTV right now. I'll be getting a 150 retail shortly, which will give me even more choices for the right recording quality vs file size. I love the ConvertX many recording qualities, but it cannot capture above 6-7Mbps, so that's one reason I'm getting a 150 retail.

Originally Posted by philhu

It is MPEG-4 and divx. Can the SageTV client read/use the mpeg4 files out of the box or are modifications needed?

I'd recommend you install the full package of WinDVR & WinDVD that comes w/ the ConvertX CD. And then use SageTV 2.1. Playback of DivX and MPEG-4 files recorded in SageTV should work fine. If you want to improve the DivX picture quality (at the expense of a little more CPU usage), then install DivX 5.2.1 and turn up the options to full (no automatic, no film effect).

Originally Posted by philhu

Can it be controlled by a usb-uirt like everything else is?

Yes and no. The USB-UIRT & Actisys control channel-changing on satellite/cable set top boxes and are independent of your capture device. Sorry to get technical on you heh.