Capturing off Digital Converter box gives only so-so results.

[brassplyer]

I tried captruing the output of one of these OTA to digital converter boxes via firewire paassthrough into a Sony Dig8.

I thought it would create these really sharp images, but it doesn't appear to be anything special. Doesn't look nearl as good as my CRT tv.


Thoughts?

[gastrof]

Well, if you're using a "converter" box, as in a box meant to make digital television broadcasts available to an analog TV, that's the problem.

The converter boxes are only outputting a standard def picture, meant for use with an analog TV.

If you want a digital box that puts out a high def picture, you'll have to get a regular digital tuner, meant for use with a high def TV.

[edDV]

I tried captruing the output of one of these OTA to digital converter boxes via firewire paassthrough into a Sony Dig8.

I thought it would create these really sharp images, but it doesn't appear to be anything special. Doesn't look nearl as good as my CRT tv.


Thoughts?

The box gets a pre-encoded MPeg2 TS file from the TV station in any of 18 formats (usually 1080i, 720p or 480i). All of the above get downscaled to 640x480i before D/A and NTSC encoding. That is a lot of processing for a $50 box. Total parts cost would be under $10. Connection quality worse to best should be RF, composite or S-Video.

[vhelp]

Capturing by means of an analog capture card (even the best ones around) may/may not do what
you want. At best, you might be able to capture a 480i video (assuming you set up your source
to output as 480i. But, even if you could this, your worse case scenario would result in outside
noise being added into the captured source. That is, things like internal electronics in the capture
equipment and computers motherboard hardware and line noise from AC power, would induce
noise into the (captured) video. Although the noise level may not be as great or noticable, the
fact still remains that this would not be the best route to take if you can go even cheaper and
better! See below..

So, quality 'wise, you don't want to capture from a source medium if there is another means of
obtaining the actual source feed -- ie, the TS (transport stream) medium. There are a number
of consumer devices that allow one to connect to a computer and watch (and record) tv/OAT
content to a HDD.

Here are a few common ones talked about here:

--> Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600 - pci -- latest ver builds have QAM support via update firm/driver
--> Hauppauge WinTV HVR-950 -- usb
--> Pinnacle PCTV Pro HD stick -- usb
--> Pinnacle PCTV Pro HD plus -- usb -- has QAM support

(Head over to the Capture Cards section and search for "HDTV" or "OAT" etc)

These devices let you watch tv on your computer, and also feature a PVR or other means to
record tv to your HDD. They take the source (TS) and decode it and separate the channels
program contents (ie, ABC tv) and rewrite a new PS (program stream, an MPEG-2 file) and from
there you process it to your liking, whatever that may be.. much like you do a DVD rip, except
you are not ripping a dvd, but rather a TS (see below) source or in the above product cases,
an already stripped TS -> PS source.

The other alternative is to work a little harder at the obtained source..

There are other devices that take the actual stream (without decoding it) and send it to your HDD.
With these devices, you have to use external windows apps to access the source files (TS) and
they do the decoding (taking out the program contents, ie: ABC tv) and the the software tool
will write out a new PS; MPEG; AVI; etc, or other stream, user configurable 'wise.

These two alternatives would result in maximum (at the source level) quality -- no induced noise
what-so-ever. Leave the analog capturing to vhs; laserdic; antenna/cable tv; mediums where
they are best at

-vhelp 4677