[linux-dvb] Re: Full featured cards

["Carlo E. Prelz" <fluido@fluido.as>]

	Subject: [linux-dvb] Full featured cards
	Date: Thu, Feb 05, 2004 at 11:24:10PM -0000

Quoting Adrian P Challinor (adrian.challinor@osiris.co.uk):

> Does anyone know where you can get the full featured cards that are needed
> by VDR? My understanding is that I need at least one card that support
> DVB-IN, DVB/TV-OUT and has an MPEG decoder on board. These seem to be in
> very short supply on the open market, so if you know of a card that is
> available I would be very glad to hear from you.

It appears vdr was targeted to the Hauppauge Nexus-s (that is, the old
Technotrend full-featured) card. Here in Holland it can be easily
found, albeit at a shamefully high price (I found it at a shop of the
Mycom chain: www.mycom.nl). I understand that this was the first card
that was available to developers.

VDR makes use of the V4L-compatible video out that was developed for
the Nexus, as well as of the OSD and CAM interface code. I understand
that VDR was developed in parallel with the dvb driver.

With a Nexus, VDR works perfectly. The unpleasant fact that I am
finding out is that the Nexus is old technology: it includes the
saa7111 DSP, that does not allow you to extract the complete
multiplexed stream - only specific PIDs, and I am experiencing, with
the same level of signal, a much higher error rate in the extracted
MPEG stream, if compared with the Hauppauge Nova (budget) card.

> Otherwise, any reason why I cant use a hi-end AGP card with a TV/DVI-out
> capability? 

In order to generate a video output, VDR needs the capability
(provided by the driver) of onboard MPEG conversion, and of on-screen
display. I *think* you can use VDR with a budget card for recording,
but you cannot see the set-top-box-like output. Porting it to using
software MPEG decoding is, I believe, not trivial. 

Carlo

-- 
  *         Se la Strada e la sua Virtu' non fossero state messe da parte,
* K * Carlo E. Prelz - fluido@fluido.as             che bisogno ci sarebbe
  *               di parlare tanto di amore e di rettitudine? (Chuang-Tzu)


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