Good TV/VHS card for Fedora Core?

[dondi_2006]

Hello,

I have a microatx PC with on board graphics more than adequate
for my needs. The only thing I want to add now is a TV capture card to encode and copy on
DVD my home videos from a VHS VCR.

I *might*, some time in the future, use the same box for
recording analog and satellite TV shows, but that is quite
unlikely, so it's not required. Right now, all I need is a
card that gives no trouble with Fedora, has coax or SCART
input and HW (PAL) video encoding to copy my movies faster. 

I have already made a bit of research. The three models below seems the easiest to buy
around here, and OK with Linux, 
but I'd really appreciate your opinion (quality, ease of use,
best Fedora driver support, anything) or suggestions for other
models of course:

Hauppage Win-TV PVR 250
Sapphire Theatrix 550 pro
Sapphire Theatrix 300

Thanks in advance for any feedback,

                     Webber

[Scot L. Harris]

On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 03:47, dondi_2006 wrote:
>  Hello,
>  
>  I have a microatx PC with on board graphics more than adequate
>  for my needs. The only thing I want to add now is a TV capture card to encode and copy on
> DVD my home videos from a VHS VCR.
>  
>  I *might*, some time in the future, use the same box for
>  recording analog and satellite TV shows, but that is quite
>  unlikely, so it's not required. Right now, all I need is a
>  card that gives no trouble with Fedora, has coax or SCART
>  input and HW (PAL) video encoding to copy my movies faster. 
>  
>  I have already made a bit of research. The three models below seems the easiest to buy
> around here, and OK with Linux, 
>  but I'd really appreciate your opinion (quality, ease of use,
>  best Fedora driver support, anything) or suggestions for other
>  models of course:
>  
>  Hauppage Win-TV PVR 250
>  Sapphire Theatrix 550 pro
>  Sapphire Theatrix 300 
Been using two Hauppage PVR 250s for almost a year.  This in a mythtv
setup.  They work very well.  For copying VHS movies the PVR 250 should
do an excellent job.  Check out the ivtv drivers for that card.

[Florin Andrei]

On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 09:47 +0100, dondi_2006 wrote:

>  I *might*, some time in the future, use the same box for
>  recording analog and satellite TV shows, but that is quite
>  unlikely, so it's not required. Right now, all I need is a
>  card that gives no trouble with Fedora, has coax or SCART
>  input and HW (PAL) video encoding to copy my movies faster.  
>  Hauppage Win-TV PVR 250 
WinTV PVR250 works fine on FC4, either standalone or with MythTV - the
latter is recommended. It captures in an MPEG2 format wich only requires
minimal processing to become compatible with DVD. Also, since all
encoding is done by the card, the CPU load is very low.

If you also plan to play back the movies from the computer to a TV or a
VCR, I recommend to purchase the PVR350 which also has a video output
which is higher quality SDTV (standard definition TV) than anything you
may devise with a regular video card.
HDTV is another matter but we don't discuss that now.

MythTV site:

http://www.mythtv.org/

To install it on Fedora, enable the ATrpms repo:
create /etc/yum.repos.d/atrpms.repo with the following content:

[atrpms]
name=Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - ATrpms
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/fc$releasever-$basearch/atrpms/stable
enabled=0
gpgcheck=1

Import the ATrpms GPG key:

wget http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
rpm --import RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms

Then install MythTV:

yum --enablerepo=atrpms install mythtv-suite

Instructions to configure it are on mythtv.org (generic instructions)
and on wilsonet.com (tailored for Fedora and ATrpms):

http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php

MythTV can be configured to run as a normal fullscreen desktop
application or, if you purchase the PVR350, it can optionally run in a
special environment on the video output of the 350 for the highest
quality video output from your computer.

-- 
Florin Andrei

http://florin.myip.org/

[Scot L. Harris]

On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 14:31, Florin Andrei wrote:
>  On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 09:47 +0100, dondi_2006 wrote:
>  
>  > I *might*, some time in the future, use the same box for
>  > recording analog and satellite TV shows, but that is quite
>  > unlikely, so it's not required. Right now, all I need is a
>  > card that gives no trouble with Fedora, has coax or SCART
>  > input and HW (PAL) video encoding to copy my movies faster. 
>  
>  > Hauppage Win-TV PVR 250
>  
>  WinTV PVR250 works fine on FC4, either standalone or with MythTV - the
>  latter is recommended. It captures in an MPEG2 format wich only requires
>  minimal processing to become compatible with DVD. Also, since all
>  encoding is done by the card, the CPU load is very low.
>  
>  If you also plan to play back the movies from the computer to a TV or a
>  VCR, I recommend to purchase the PVR350 which also has a video output
>  which is higher quality SDTV (standard definition TV) than anything you
>  may devise with a regular video card.
>  HDTV is another matter but we don't discuss that now.
>   
I use PVR350's for output as well and the result is great on the TV. 
You can use many of the video cards that are available for the same
job.  The PVR350 provides mpeg2 decode which off loads the main CPU.  

But the PVR250 will handle the encoding just fine for your VHS
conversion and can later be used to record TV later on.  Mythtv is great
for recording and playing TV content.  The commercial skip capability
alone is worth setting up a dedicated system as a DVR system.  I have
found that having at least three encoders eliminates most recording
conflicts.  I don't watch live TV anymore.

[Florin Andrei]

On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 15:40 -0500, Scot L. Harris wrote:

>  I don't watch live TV anymore. 
What is this "live TV" you are speaking about?

:-)

-- 
Florin Andrei

http://florin.myip.org/

[Scot L. Harris]

On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 15:44, Florin Andrei wrote:
>  On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 15:40 -0500, Scot L. Harris wrote:
>  
>  > I don't watch live TV anymore.
>  
>  What is this "live TV" you are speaking about?
>  
>  :-) 
It those shows with commercials in them.  :)

[Axel Thimm]

On Sat, Jan 07, 2006 at 09:47:39AM +0100, dondi_2006 wrote:
>  Hello,
>  
>  I have a microatx PC with on board graphics more than adequate
>  for my needs. The only thing I want to add now is a TV capture card to encode and copy on
> DVD my home videos from a VHS VCR.
>  
>  I *might*, some time in the future, use the same box for
>  recording analog and satellite TV shows, but that is quite
>  unlikely, so it's not required. Right now, all I need is a
>  card that gives no trouble with Fedora, has coax or SCART
>  input and HW (PAL) video encoding to copy my movies faster. 
>  
>  I have already made a bit of research. The three models below seems the easiest to buy
> around here, and OK with Linux, 
>  but I'd really appreciate your opinion (quality, ease of use,
>  best Fedora driver support, anything) or suggestions for other
>  models of course:
>  
>  Hauppage Win-TV PVR 250 
Take the PVR 150, it's cheaper and of better quality (comb
filter). You can find the driver at http://ATrpms.net/name/ivtv/ or
use apt/yum/smart with e.g.

yum install ivtv-kmdl-`uname -r` ivtv

>  Sapphire Theatrix 550 pro
>  Sapphire Theatrix 300
>  
>  Thanks in advance for any feedback,
>  
>                       Webber
>  
>   
-- 
Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net

[John Pierce]

>  Take the PVR 150, it's cheaper and of better quality (comb
>  filter). You can find the driver at http://ATrpms.net/name/ivtv/ or
>  use apt/yum/smart with e.g.
>
>  yum install ivtv-kmdl-`uname -r` ivtv 
I agree that the PVR150 is better, I would suggest using the PVR500
which is basically two PVR150 tuners located on one card and the ivtv
drivers see it this way.  Great for picture in picture, or watching
live tv and recording at the same time.

John

--
Registered Linux User 263680, get counted at
http://counter.li.org

[Scot L. Harris]

On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 19:00, John Pierce wrote:
>  > Take the PVR 150, it's cheaper and of better quality (comb
>  > filter). You can find the driver at http://ATrpms.net/name/ivtv/ or
>  > use apt/yum/smart with e.g.
>  >
>  > yum install ivtv-kmdl-`uname -r` ivtv
>  
>  I agree that the PVR150 is better, I would suggest using the PVR500
>  which is basically two PVR150 tuners located on one card and the ivtv
>  drivers see it this way.  Great for picture in picture, or watching
>  live tv and recording at the same time. 
I tried a PVR500 last summer.  At the time I had a problem getting both
tuners to work.  It may have been an issue with the version of ivtv at
that time.  Have not tried it recently (running two PVR250's and two
PVR350's at the moment).

There were a few of us having similar problems at that time.  But many
people were able to get the PVR500 working back then.  Will have to
revisit that at some point.

[J. K. Cliburn]

John Pierce wrote:
> >Take the PVR 150, it's cheaper and of better quality (comb
> >filter). You can find the driver at http://ATrpms.net/name/ivtv/ or
> >use apt/yum/smart with e.g.
> >
> >yum install ivtv-kmdl-`uname -r` ivtv
>  
>  
>  I agree that the PVR150 is better, I would suggest using the PVR500
>  which is basically two PVR150 tuners located on one card and the ivtv
>  drivers see it this way.  Great for picture in picture, or watching
>  live tv and recording at the same time. 
I, too, want to transfer VHS home movies to DVD.  What's the suitability 
of this board for the task, given the recommendations parceled out in 
this thread last month?  Thumbs up, or thumbs down?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116620

TIA,
Jay