HD Component Capture Card @CES?

IVB

Senior Member
From this post, supposedly Hauppauge has a prototype 1080p over component capture card!

Anyone @CES who can confirm this? That would totally rock - SageTV would be able to record DirecTV HD, which would then make it *the* Microsoft killer app.
 
And Opus4 (Sage Admin) just posted this:

In the Echostar booth (Central Hall 9021) there's a technology demo with an Echostar set-top box streaming live HD TV to a Pioneer Blu-ray player running SageTV software. It's currently a technology demo only, no product release commitment from Echostar or Pioneer at this point.
 
Someone else over at sage has the Black Magic Intensity Pro running right now. They can only handle transcoded 720p but still hell of cool, IIRC the guy said uncompressed component at 1080i was something like 6GB per minute! :)
 
Also, DirecTV announced their PC recording solution. A dual-tuner stand-alone box that connects to the PC via USB. No timing or pricing yet... but there appear to be several solutions coming!

<edit: whoa... Narflex (founder of Sage) is teasing about "a USB device that could capture HD at 1080i and encode it into H.264 that worked with SageTV".>
 
It is the laws and the industry that is gimping HD, not hardware or tech in general.

Why would anyone want HDMI when it complies with HDCP? It is like we all are racing out to spend money on technology that strips us of abilities we had years before.

Media Extenders are not there to help us. Cable Cards are not there to give us new features... All of this tech is there to STOP you from doing things you could already do.

Ok, I have been told several times today that I am PMSing, so I am going to stop here...

But in the Virtual Crib, I have everything everywhere and I use Component & VGA. When they come out with something better, holla.

F%$@ HDCP

Vaughn
 
The Sage HD Extender works just fine with Component output... no need for HDMI (or the resulting HDCP). I agree - I think the restrictions are ridiculous. The fact it's illegal for me to copy my kids DVD to put on my media server so they can easily watch a movie demonstrates the ridiculousness of it all...
 
Also, DirecTV announced their PC recording solution. A dual-tuner stand-alone box that connects to the PC via USB. No timing or pricing yet...
It looks like the answer is the HDCP20. This would definitely make me want to setup a Sage D*/OTA system with extenders. But in true D* fashion, it may be months more before this thing hits the streets, and then months more before Sage supports it.
 
It is the laws and the industry that is gimping HD, not hardware or tech in general.

Why would anyone want HDMI when it complies with HDCP? It is like we all are racing out to spend money on technology that strips us of abilities we had years before.

Media Extenders are not there to help us. Cable Cards are not there to give us new features... All of this tech is there to STOP you from doing things you could already do.

Ok, I have been told several times today that I am PMSing, so I am going to stop here...

But in the Virtual Crib, I have everything everywhere and I use Component & VGA. When they come out with something better, holla.

F%$@ HDCP

Vaughn

I got a new TV and it will only display its full resolution using the HDMI input so what choice do I have really? If I go with component I am stuck with 1080i or lower even though the TV can display 1080p.
 
From this post, supposedly Hauppauge has a prototype 1080p over component capture card!

Anyone @CES who can confirm this? That would totally rock - SageTV would be able to record DirecTV HD, which would then make it *the* Microsoft killer app.

I was at the Happauge booth @ CES today. They had the a demo of what they were calling a "HD DVR". The Hauppague rep said it was for recording HD signals and was going to be a box with Component video connectors on one side and USB on the other. Their demo showed part of a HD DVD movie that they ripped to the computer. It looked pretty clean. The only other info I could get from him was that the product will hit the streets in about two months and it will have a street price of $250.
 
Although I have 6 Media centers now, I admit I am new to it and just learning. In my setup, I simply map to the Recorded TV directories of other computers or NAS drives where I save the shows.

So I have 1 HD Cablebox on 1 MCE, so I record the Premium channels on it, then I can watch it from any computer in the house because they all map to the directory where the shows were stored.

So now I can play any content from 1 Media Center on any other TV. So what would a media extender offer me that I don't already have?

Now if you say they are for TV's that don't have computers, then I say I get Dell GX260's for $100, add a tuner for $100 and if you even want to be legit, add MCE 2005 for another $100... That is $300 for a full Media Center, so an extender would have to be way cheaper since the $300 MCE setup is also a full blown computer, internet, etc....

Option 2: I have multiple modded XBoxes, I map them to the Recorded TV directories of my MCE boxes, and now an old XBox can play any TV show I record. So no XBox 360 Media extenders needed either. Again a modded XBox serves many functions, so why spend the money on a proprietary extender when you can get such cool tech for the same price?

(PS I am not really argueing against them, I am just trying to see if I am missing something)

Vaughn
 
In your scenario, I can think of a few reasons:

- Price. SD Extenders are $109, HD Extenders are $190.
- Remotes. Extenders have their own remote. No messing with making IR control a PC.
- WAF. It's a dedicated box. Turn it on and in 1 second, you are on. No crashing. No rebooting.
- Tweaking. I don't have to worry about graphics drivers, etc. Plug it in and in 30 seconds, I'm watching TV. No dealing with Windows updates or bugs or anything.
- Interface. Very easy to use interface (I think IVB says his 5 year old uses it... mine don't but that's because I don't want them too) and I can change it. I don't have to deal with picking a TV show from a windows folder... I have a nice big UI to work with.
- Commercial skipping. Your PC may do this too... dunno.
- Silence. The extenders are quiet. No fans. No hard disks. Absolute silence. No heat.

The one downside I can see... no DVD player in it. I don't use a DVD player anymore (mine are ripped to Hard drive), but I can see where some have said it would be nice to be able to slip in a DVD the old fashioned way. Maybe for some they'd like to have internet browsing on their TV too... I don't.
 
I'll second everything Bruce just said... I think the appeal of a dedicated no hassle box can be very high. No need to spend the time needed to hack together another solution when for the same price you can have a plug and play setup (mostly).
 
Those are all valid points, but you are losing tons of features to make them. If that is the trade off you are willing to make to simplify the system for a wife or child, that is cool.

You are wrong about the difficulty of watching the files though as all the mapped drives still go through MCE so you can watch with a MCE remote, you don't need a keyboard or anything, so if they can use a media center, it is no more difficult to watch content from mapped drives. Also, the Dell GX260 is probably not as quiet, but is still very quiet.

My feature list for a PC over an extender
1 Home Automation interface!
2 surfing the Web
3 Syncing and charging phones
4 Security camera DVR access
5 Games
6 Order a pizza! heheh
7 Web cam/Additional audio security.
8 HA speaker and VR client
9 Non-proprietary, the PC can be reassigned to other tasks later.
10 IM, Email, Skype (VOIP)
11 Work! You turn the TV into a workstation so I can use LogMeIn and montior email, etc for work.
12 Bluetooth triangulation and other occupancy features a PC in each room provides.
13 Localized content. My bedroom computer can store local non-shared content that it can play right along with the other stuff that is shared around the house. Don't want the kids seeing some of my videos! =)
14 Burning stations... Watching something you like, well the machine in front of you can burn it off.
15 You can upgrade a computer!

ok, you get my point, I hope, which is that saving $120 and losing the features above is not a bargain. Again, the points of simplicity for WAF are valid, but I have no such constraints. What I am asking is: Is the video quality going to be better? Will I have more HD options, etc.

Now to stick my foot in my mouth, Vista SUCKS and MCE 2005 is no longer being supported, and I have had problems with both, so I can see how a Sage solution may be more stable and less hassle, etc.

As for you USMike, I guess you use the plugs you got, unless you can return the TV... I wouldn't buy anything without Component and VGA. If it has DVI/HDMI, bonus, but I just don't think I would give up a TV with a VGA port. We all have to adapt to what we have and soon there may not be models with VGA. Money runs the world though and if VGA ports sell, every TV will have one. I was just saying too many people I talk to think the latest tech is the best, so everyone seems to want HDMI because they think it is better. If you have a choice, you might find old tech is actually much better and that these new techs are not offering any improvements, just more restraints. Audio and video combined? Only a Audio Receiver with a 3-in/1-out or better could use this I guess. The way I see it is my video needs to go to the TV, my audio needs to go to my stereo and combining the cables is a gimmick and will go unused and complicate my setup.

my biggest fear is that I spend lots of money on Sage crap then decide to use MediaPortal and now I have a bunch of extenders I can not use any more. WAF for throwing money away is BAD. I prefer not to get locked in to anything, ever. Especially when it does not provide me with unique features.

Again, I am not saying I am right, just throwing out a non-mainstream perspective and fishing for more insight. I was also under the impression that some extenders were just software that ran on a computer, which would void out many of the previous extender perks. Also, factor in things like the XBox 360 which is $220 and is also a MCE extender, so how do all of your Sage type extenders stack up to that? $220 you get a state of the art gaming platform & a media center extender... Makes ever $110 for a dedicated extender look like not such a cheap option.

Open Minded and stuborn as hell, all at the same time,
Vaughn
 
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