[linux-dvb] suggestions for dual tuner + hardware encoder cards?

[Zenon Mousmoulas]

Hi everyone,

I am searching for hardware for a small project: build one or two  
boxes packed with tuner cards to capture, encode and stream analog TV  
channels to an IP network. The initial target is 6 channels, but  
ideally I would like to be able to accomodate more in the future.

Hence I am looking for supported cards featuring dual tuners and a  
hardware MPEG encoder. The cards must have a PCI or PCIe interface. I  
would better not have to deal with USB devices because, if nothing  
else, the boxes should be self-contained.

I've read about the saa7162 based devices; I think these would be  
ideal, and I believe I can actually find some on the local market.  
However, as far as I can tell, there are no drivers yet to support  
the hardware on these cards. Is that so?

Ruling out saa7162, and since I can't find other such dual-tuner  
cards, I am also looking at single tuner devices with a hardware  
encoder. According to what I've read in the v4l2 wiki and elsewhere,  
it seems I should go for some ivtv or cx88-supported device with pvr  
functionality onboard, i.e. devices featuring some blackbird or vixs  
mpeg encoder. However I am somewhat lost at this point, since there  
is a wide range of devices supported by these drivers and not all  
have the same features (more specifically the hardware encoder chip)  
or are supported to the same extent. The extensive commercial re- 
branding of these cards also doesn't help when trying to identify them.

I therefore decided to ask for suggestions from folks more  
knowledgeable than me. I am rather new to v4l and linux-dvb, but not  
totally new: for the past few months I've successfully used a saa7134  
based card (Lifeview FlyDVB Trio) to experiment with analog, DVB-T  
and DVB-S channels. In any case please bear with me and my ignorance,  
in case I have gotten wrong the few facts stated above.
Finally I apologize for cross-poting; My questions probably pertain  
to rather generic v4l hardware matters (as opposed to being DVB  
specific), however I would value suggestions by members of both lists.

Thanks,
Z.