Is the HD PVR the only way of capturing HD programming from Cable\Satellite?

[lfilomeno]

Is the HD PVR the only way of capturing HD programming from Cable\Satellite on SageTV? Does a similar hardware product exist?

[stanger89]

What do you mean, "similar hardware product"? The HD PVR is hardware.

As far as alternatives, there isn't anything else that accepts component and has a hardware encoder, at least not in consumer (<$10k) space.

[lfilomeno]

that's what I meant, alternatives to the HD-PVR. Thanks for the prompt response.

[sic0048]

If you have DishTV and an older receiver (not the VIP211K) then you can look at modifying that receiver with what is called the R5000 from Nextcom Wireless. Those modified boxes will work in SageTV.

That is about the only other option I am aware of for satellite, and it only works for DishTV currently. It is also possible that Dish would change the way they broadcast their material and render the box worthless (it happened to DirectTV users a few years ago).

There are a lot of threads here comparing the pros and cons of each option, so I'll let you search for them.

If you have cable, those digital broadcasts are sent out in what we call QAM. Most stations are encrypted and you'll not be able to record those. But you can hook up a QAM tuner and be able to record any unencrypted QAM stations. For most cable providers, this is limited to your local HD channels. The benefit to this method is you can hook your coaxial cable directly to the QAM tuner and you don't need a cable box. But for encrypted QAM channels, you need the cable box and the HD-PVR to record them.

[Yalbik]

If your cable company uses Scientific Atlanta or Motorola set-top boxes, you can possibly capture HD using firewire

I've been doing this for just over a month now and so far I am reasonably happy with the results.

[dcardellini]

+1 for Cable Box >> Firewire >> SageTV.

I have two cable boxes (and now trying to get third to work) where I get the original mpeg2 stream recording via Firewire. If you are lucky, none of the content (premium channels, etc.) are protected by 5C flags. You can go up to most cable boxes/TV and check if any/all channels are 5C'ed. If open, then this is a real simple solution.

[GbrNole]

what was the method to check if you box is 5C'd? i remember there was some way to do it in the cable box start up (maybe setup?) menus but forget the procedure.

[dcardellini]

Depends on cable box. I can dig up procedure if you have a Motorola DCT-6412.

[Graygeek]

HAVA will capture component video with stereo audio. Works flawlessly. The only cons are you can only use one HAVA per system and the capture is DVD quality not full HD, but then a lot of the content isn't any beter than DVD quality anyhow. I have been running the Hava Platinum for at least nine months, and it just works! Another plus is it can be found for less than $100

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Graygeek

HAVA will capture component video with stereo audio. Works flawlessly. The only cons are you can only use one HAVA per system and the capture is DVD quality not full HD, but then a lot of the content isn't any beter than DVD quality anyhow. I have been running the Hava Platinum for at least nine months, and it just works! Another plus is it can be found for less than $100

And a PVR-250 costs even less, and does the same thing from SVideo... don't see much advantage to the Hava, since it's only SD anyways, all it's got going for it is component instead of svideo, which is not really a major difference, when only dealing with SD resolutions.