HDTV from DirecTV

[abbott_m]

Is there any way to record the HD channels off a Direct TV feed yet? I live in an area that just isn't going to get OTA anytime soon.

Mike

[Fluffdaddy]

http://www.nextcomwireless.com/r5000/home.htm

[dbfresh23]

The R5000 mod is not worth getting for DirecTV as they have already said they will be converting all of their MPEG2 HD content to MPEG4 by the end of this year when they plan on releasing their 100 new HD channels. Sure people are skeptical as to them being able to come up with all of those HD channels, but converting the existing signals to MPEG4 is certainly doable.

[justplainnuts]

Is there a PVR card our there with DVI or HDMI digital video inputs? Is there one with component inputs?

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by justplainnuts

Is there a PVR card our there with DVI or HDMI digital video inputs? Is there one with component inputs?

Short answer is no - at least nothing that is consumer grade (price). DirecTV is working on a PC tuner for Vista that I am hopeful will also work with SageTV somehow.

[justplainnuts]

There is a way to get this done. I just know there is:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/12/b...ci-express-ca/

[YvesAdeleHarlow]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

Short answer is no - at least nothing that is consumer grade (price). DirecTV is working on a PC tuner for Vista that I am hopeful will also work with SageTV somehow.

That'd be sweet. Do you have some links to source docs or forums for that?

[justplainnuts]

I'm just pist and doing some surfing. I think this helps us too:

http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/21/t...ny-red-button/

Maybe the guys with more technical epertise can figure how to make all this stuff work to our advantage.

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by YvesAdeleHarlow

That'd be sweet. Do you have some links to source docs or forums for that?

It was announced at last years CES - there's another topic in the General discussion that has a link to more recent info on it.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22759

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by justplainnuts

I'm just pist and doing some surfing. I think this helps us too:

http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/21/t...ny-red-button/

Maybe the guys with more technical epertise can figure how to make all this stuff work to our advantage.

Until CPUs get a lot more powerful (I'm thinking order of magnitude) or somebody sticks a hardware encoder on a card like that, it's all but worthless for us.

[justplainnuts]

It seems that this:

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/pro...ity/techspecs/

used with something like this:

http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/21/t...ny-red-button/

Anyone could record HDTV from sattelite or Cable. Am I missing something here?

[stanger89]

A couple hundred GB/hr for any HD you record with it.

Astronomical CPU requirements if you hope to compress it to a reasonable size in realtime.

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by stanger89

A couple hundred GB/hr for any HD you record with it.

Astronomical CPU requirements if you hope to compress it to a reasonable size in realtime.

Just curious, how do the new HD camcorders do it (I assume they do some level of compression).

Wayne

[stanger89]

I would guess they have a hardware encoder chip onboard, like the PVR 150 does for SD.

Currently there are no HD capture cards with such a chip for any reasonable price.

[justplainnuts]

Ok, I think I have solved the whole HD via DirecTV problem. I know you guys are saying "yeah, right" about now.

If I can't get my PC based PVR to record HD from DirecTV, I'll turn a DirecTV DVR into a PC. Then I can access the HD programs thru my network and import them into Sage. I did a lot of brain storming and surfing on the web. Here is a link to another forum out there and my posts there:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...78#post4915278

There is a way to make this all work! Tell me where I'm wrong, here.

[naln]

Just took a look at it- seems to work....I guess no integration with Sage though....you'll have to import these as 'Imported Videos'....that seems to be the big downside...but hey, recording HD content and viewing them on Sage in itself seems to be a big plus (in the sub 500 R5000 range )....keep us posted....would definitely like to give this a try....

Never used an actual DVR- but maybe you can have it controlled through one of the serial/usb ports etc to at least record what you want....even if it is on a different physical drive.....the sage unit will show a blank...but you maybe able to write a file moving and renaming script to replace the dummy data in Sage with the actual recording data from your DVR....don't know if I'm making much sense here....just excited to know about HD-Direct TV capture possibilities.....Good luck.

[elaw]

Originally Posted by justplainnuts

Ok, I think I have solved the whole HD via DirecTV problem. I know you guys are saying "yeah, right" about now.

I think the only problem with that arrangement, not that I should even be using this word in a computer context, is sustainability.

I do something very similar right now with my SD DirecTivo. I record shows on the Tivo, d/l them to my network server, then I can view them in Sage. The PQ is significantly better than I can get using analog capture with a STB (or off the Tivo, I'd expect it to be the same).

The problem is, at some point (it's anyone's guess when), D* is going to switch to MPEG4 encoding, which will render all the current/past Tivo-based DVR's obsolete (as well as most STB's I think).

I think the only long-term solution is to get one of the newer DVR boxes which I understand are not Tivo's and thus not readily hackable to do what we're talking about.

[justplainnuts]

Yeah, it would be nice if Sage could be programmed to see the actual DirecTV receiver as a PVR device like it does with the PVR cards. And then record the data to the the remote hard drive. This would keep everything inside Sage without having to import files. This would also give you complete control and let you manage the recordings thru Sage instead of going back and forth between the PVR and DVR. Sage should be able to compunicate to the DVR via RS-232 if the DVR has a serial port. I think it does.

Maybe someone here that knows the Sage dudes can show this concept to them.

[dbfresh23]

The new HD DVR - HR20 can actually already communicate with a PC over a network with VIIV stuff. Everything I've read basically says that it can stream media from the pc but not to to the pc. Hopefully only a matter of time until someone finds some sort of workaround - I won't hold my breath though.

I just finally got mine installed the other day and it is nowhere near as bad as the reviews online say it is.