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Hardware Support Discussions related to using various hardware setups with SageTV products. Anything relating to capture cards, remotes, infrared receivers/transmitters, system compatibility or other hardware related problems or suggestions should be posted here.

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  #1  
Old 07-28-2005, 03:32 AM
kltye kltye is offline
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Location: Chicago, IL
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HD Cable & Sage

Hi,

Sometime down the road I expect to subscribe to HD cable (like Comcast HD). However, I'd still like to be able to use Sage with this system. Obviously I'd like to capture in HD as well. What sort of capture card would I be looking at? One with component input? I've poked around, but have yet to find such a card. Does one even exist?

Thanks!
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  #2  
Old 07-28-2005, 05:42 AM
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stanger89 stanger89 is offline
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No such a card doesn't exist, at least not for any reasonable amount of money. What you're looking at is a QAM capable HDTV card, but with that you'll be limited to unencrypted channels, more than likely, only you locals.
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  #3  
Old 07-28-2005, 06:04 AM
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salsbst salsbst is offline
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I was playing around with my Fusion card last night, and found the following unencrypted in DC Comcast:

WRC-1 (ABC)
WETA digital
WETA
WMAR-HD (NBC)
ABC
MPT
WJLZ-DT (CBS Baltimore)
MPT-DT (HD)
WUSA-HD (CBS)
NBC4
NBC4 Weather
Black Family Channel
Comcast Announcements
Some sports scores thing
HBO (!!!!!)
Fox 45
WB
NBA TV
WETA Kids
WETA Plus

So it's true that it's mostly locals, but there are some other things floating around in there. But even if HBO disappears (I'm sure it will), for someone who can't get OTA, QAM isn't something to be poo-pooed!
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  #4  
Old 07-28-2005, 07:11 AM
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srothwell srothwell is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stanger89
No such a card doesn't exist, at least not for any reasonable amount of money. What you're looking at is a QAM capable HDTV card, but with that you'll be limited to unencrypted channels, more than likely, only you locals.
Only catch is that Sage doesn't support anything likke that.

When I hooked my cable up to my Sony HDTV it found:

ABC
NBC
CBS
FOX
Every single SD Discovery-owned network (except Discovery HD and Discovery itself) i.e. Military channel, Science Channel, etc.
All 47 Music Channels
A bunch of horse racing channels (?)

However, I was very disapointed in the quality of the network's broadcast channels. Clearly, Comcast is severely degrading the bitrate of these.

Even my wife (who has trouble seeing the difference between VHS and DVD) commented that the Comcast HD channels really didn't look that much better than analog cable TV. She does notice a huge difference between analog cable and OTA HDTV.

What we need someone to come out with (and support) is a CableCard PCI card. That way, you could subscribe to (and pay for) digital cable, but still get all the encrypted channels and be able to record them.

Rumors are that in '06 there will be some of these cards and that MCE will support them.
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  #5  
Old 07-28-2005, 08:23 AM
kltye kltye is offline
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Location: Chicago, IL
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Thanks for your quick replies. Hopefully HD-capable cards in the future won't be too costly.

I've seen a friend's Comcast HD in Chicago, and it seems pretty good with his Samsung CRT HDTV. Unfortunately there isn't much OTA HDTV here in downtown Chicago
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  #6  
Old 07-28-2005, 02:13 PM
CanadianEh CanadianEh is offline
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Location: Colchester, VT
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So guys, there's no way to "bypass" the encryption - meaning to take the raw feed from an HD decoder (perhaps a cable box) and then pipe it into an HD capture card? My familiarity with HDTV is very little.. but I wish to upgrade to one in the near future.
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  #7  
Old 07-28-2005, 02:28 PM
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salsbst salsbst is offline
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HD has (currently) too much data to be (re)compressed in realtime with acceptable quality unless you move into the multi-thousand dollar level of hardware.
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  #8  
Old 07-29-2005, 01:51 PM
CanadianEh CanadianEh is offline
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Ah.. I guess that would make sense then Maybe someday...
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My systems:
Server: AMD Phenom Quad-Core 2.3Ghz, 4GB RAM, ECS A780GM-A MB, 2x HD-PVRs (connected to DirecTV HD STBs using ethernet channel changing), 1x AverMedia A180, OS RAID-1 mirror - 2x250GB 7200rpm SATA, Media RAID-1 mirror - 2x1TB 7200rpm SATA, USB-UIRT (remote control)
Main Client: Sage STX-HD100 Media extender
Second Client: Athlon XP 4000+, 2GB MB PC3200 DDR, Asus A8N5X MB, 512MB PCI-E ATI HD Radeon 3650, 160 GB SATA - hardware mirrored
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  #9  
Old 07-29-2005, 07:55 PM
flavius flavius is offline
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You don't have to wait for Sage to go HD. You can get a decent set-top box from comcast, like the Moto DCT6412 which is a HD dual-tuner pvr. The hard drive allows for 12 hrs (or so) of HD programming.

Get a TV. Enjoy.
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