HDTV support - which cards are likely?

[NicolasW]

In my lurking on the AVS Forums, I believe the consensus is that the MyHD card is the one to get. That's about all I know.

Good luck!
Wes

[edmc]

The problem with the MyHD solution is it provides no means to play a program back while recording another. It can either display the program being recorded OR playback a previously recorded program. Just not both at the same time.

Now, if MyHD is combined with a separate H/W or S/W solution used for the playback function, that's quite another matter. DViCo chose this route - others will certainly follow. I imagine that the various Video decoders people use for DVD playback may also work - but I am unaware of any that make sufficient use of DxVA in order to enable less than a 3GHz CPU to playback full-rez HD without stuttering.

The AccessDTV card - which is still available and has seen a recent price drop - does, however, have the necessary support for simultaneous recording/playback needed by SageTV.

Is this other folks understanding?

[mkerdman]

"The AccessDTV card - which is still available and has seen a recent price drop - does, however, have the necessary support for simultaneous recording/playback needed by SageTV."

This huge advantage that accessDTV has over all the other HDTV cards

- simultaneous recording/playback of HDTV-

is one that the AVS accessDTV Software Development Team hopes to make available to users in the near future.

As for SageTV support for accessDTV, let's just say it is certainly technically possible.

Please let Frey Technologies know that you would like SageTV support for accessDTV by responding here.

And, stay tuned...in HDTV of course!


Murray Kerdman

[Tril]

Why cant anyone make PVR software for the 878A chipset?

I have the cheaper WinTV-D from Hauppauge which converts all the DVD formats to a 480 signal. I got another PVR software to work with it once but since I rebuilt the machine it doesnt recognize it.

The card is perfectly fine its just that Hauppauge doesnt make good software.

Do you have any plans on supporting the Conexant 878A chipset in the future?

[djg]

I have both the MyHD and the AccessDTV cards and would welcome SageTV support for either of them. But I really prefer the AccessDTV with its timeshifting capability.

Looking forward to Sage HD support!

[ttriplett]

The accessDTV card is the only one that I am interested in because of its true PVR capabilities (ffwd, rwd, pause, skip, etc).

I think that this card in conjunction with SageTV support would be the PERFECT solution for building an HDTV equipped HTPC!!! Especially with SageTV's ability to control external STBs and integrate everything under one program quide.

Come on Frey! You guys get together and make this happen!

[salsbst]

I vote for Hipix (because I have one) and accessDTV (because I'd buy one, since it has the pausability, if it worked really well with SageTV).

[mkerdman]

Yes, it's important to keep in mind that the accessDTV card is the only HDTV Capture Card that is capable of true PVR hardware capabilities (ffwd, rwd, pause, skip, etc).

Also another important fact to be aware of is that iTech is an american manufaturer currently shipping new product from inventory.

Further, future product innovation will be forthcoming from the AVS accessDTV Software Development Team.


accessDTV Digital Media Receiver System

Digital Media Receiver, software, antenna, cabling

$249.95 Total Solution

http://216.207.142.133/local/buyonline.htm



Now, if it had SageTV support as well...then....



Murray Kerdman

[edmc]

While I am quite happy to wait and see, at this point, what HDTV Tuner/Capture cards will be supported by SageTV, I really must comment on what I think is a bit of misinformation being reported by ttriplett and mkerdman.

While it is true that the AccessDTV card is capable of simultaneously capturing an OTA HDTV signal to disk and playing back an HDTV stream via onboard MPEG-2 Decoders, this does not mean that is the only way to do it. Indeed, ANY of the discussed HDTV cards could be used in this fashion (i.e. capture while playing back) if just one thing were true - that the playback used NO resources on the Tuner/Capture card.

As has been said before, there are various solutions here - the most obvious being the FusionHDTV Card and S//W from DViCo. There are also other S/W decoders available as well. And, in my opinion, this model is far more preferable than the AccessDTV model...

So lets keep the Tuning/Capture function independent of the Playback function - this just might allow us to pick the "best of breed" for each :-)

[mkerdman]

edmc

Rest assured that there was no intention on my part to misrepresnt anything but only to note that the AccessDTV card is capable of simultaneously capturing an OTA HDTV signal to disk and playing back an HDTV stream via onboard MPEG-2 Decoders.

As of yet, no other HDTV card has a SW playback/record implementation such as you describe.

That certainly does not mean that one is not possible.

However, the AccessDTV card's capability to play back an HDTV stream via onboard MPEG-2 Decoders seems the preferable method compared to SW decoding insofar as the SW method has a high CPU resource usage and is more readily corrupted or conflicted with.

Murray Kerdman

[mandrake]

The problem with the hardware decode for me and I suspect many here is I have a central server with sage with 3 turners feeding me house. When I add the HD card it will feed out also so the hardware decode is worthless. I looked over the card and the price is right but I will need SW decode for all my clients. Now if the HW decode would work across the network that could be different since I will mainly be watching the HD stuff in the family room. How much bandwidth does HD take?

[mkerdman]

accessDTV does not now have any client/server functions.

Currently, it would require seperate accessDTV cards in each PC on a network to playback HD files from anywhere on the network.

Client Server feeding of some kind of streamed HD to other PC's with SW Decoders for playback might work for some other HW products.

However, HW decoding of HDTV as utilized in accessDTV is vastly superior to the SW decoding used by others.



Murray Kerdman

[gsr]

Originally posted by mandrake
The problem with the hardware decode for me and I suspect many here is I have a central server with sage with 3 turners feeding me house. When I add the HD card it will feed out also so the hardware decode is worthless. I looked over the card and the price is right but I will need SW decode for all my clients. Now if the HW decode would work across the network that could be different since I will mainly be watching the HD stuff in the family room. How much bandwidth does HD take?

As Murray said, the AccessDTV solution doesn't support streaming the decoded signal over the network at this time. More research would be needed to determine if this is technically and/or legally possible to do. Given the amount of data required for transmitting the decoded HD MPEG-2 stream over the network, I'm not even sure if this would make for a very practical solution.

[mel_g]

I too would like Accessdtv support for SageTV.

[rotaryracer]

Sending it back up....I'm sure there would have been trumpets blaring and much fanfare if v1.4 included HDTV capabilities for ANY of the HD cards, so I'm not holding out hope for this release.....but there's always 1.5 or Studio, right?!?!?!

[JJarmoc]

Yup, still lurking and dieing for HD-SageTV. Honestly, a lot of my enthusiasm has died for sage.. I may just stop using it altogether if I can't get HD from it soon.

[Narflex]

Well then...how about some feedback from people on how well the HDTV recorded files playback in Sage? It has playback support for HDTV files (if the installed MPEG2 decoder supports it and the hardware can handle it). But I've gotten almost no feedback on what card's recordings playback or don't.

Once there's some consensus that it can playback the files correctly, then we can do more for supporting recording.

[rotaryracer]

I'd be the first to test playback....if I had a HTPC and a TV to connect it to.

My XBR910 is supposed to be arriving in a couple of weeks, though, so I'm getting ready to start building my HTPC.

Unfortunately, it's that old Catch-22 - I don't want to buy a HD card unless I know it would be fully supported in the future by Sage, but I can't provide feedback to Sage on HD playback unless I buy a HD card that may or may not be supported.

If you told me that you've been working with the AVS Forums/AccessDTV team for HD integration, I'd buy an AccessDTV. If it's the MIT folks, then I'll grab a MyHD-120. I'd even buy a Fusion II, particularly if Sage can overcome the apparent buggy software that comes with the card.

So, that's my sob story....Jeff/Dan, from everything I've seen and read, you guys make a kickass product and provide great support. I'd like to buy Sage, but will probably hold out for HD integration.

Thanks and keep up the great work!

Jason

[gregmo]

I would love for Sage TV to support Access DTV, and I know about 10 other people who also want this.

Please give this card your consideration, Frey Technologies.

[dkardatzke]

We haven't provided an update on this in awhile and hope to in the next couple of months. We have been working on HD support with one manufacturer and are still working out some initial items for support. We hope to revisit HD and possibly making an Alpha version available for testing this fall.

However, we don't want to release an Alpha (or Beta) version for testing until we have the time to support it and take the feedback to work on the HD version. In the meantime our focus in on releasing v1.4 and then finishing the Studio and version 2.0 for release this fall.

We will make an announcement when we are ready to begin some level of HD testing later this fall.

Thanks,
Dan