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  1. Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Search PM
    Hi,

    Many years ago I bought a Daewoo DVB-T PVR and was very happy with it. I foolishly upgraded to a Sony DC205 because I wanted a built in DVD recorder. It was a bad choice. As majority of PVRs use encryption due to licencing (or so I'm told), I don't want to go down that route as the content is then tied to that box forever, so I'm linking of a PC based PVR. My question is do the files that PCI based TV Tuners record add encryption? E.g. Hauppage WinTV. I want a single HD to store all my recorded content without encryption. Also what file format do they record to. I'm hoping simple .mpg rather than Transport Stream, so I can stream to my SmartTV.

    Also any recommendation on good site to read-up on PVR based PCs.
    Thanks
    TimN
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  2. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Freedonia
    Search Comp PM
    I've never heard of any PC based capture card adding encryption. What they record to varies by the card. For example, Hauppauge's HDPVR/Colossus line of products only record with the video in H.264 format, although you can save recorded files in TS format (works best), M2TS (works next best) and MP4 (sometimes has audio sync issues).

    You'll have to get an older standard definition type capture card if you want to record in MPG format. You need to be sure what your TV source can send video output via (ie. HDMI, component, composite, etc.) and make sure whatever card/device you get accepts it.
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  3. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Deep in the Heart of Texas
    Search PM
    Capture cards do not ADD encryption. What they do is NOT DECRYPT upon capture. So an incoming source that is already encrypted will either retain the existing encryption (and only decrypt - when appropriate and allowed - upon playback), or not allow capturing at all. Kind of like the CRM-114 transponder in Dr. Strangelove.

    Given the way things are going, what you desire is something the powers that be will not allow to be improved upon, so your only options are legacy SD items which will just become rarer and rarer.

    Scott
    Last edited by Cornucopia; 28th Apr 2014 at 13:55.
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  4. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Most PVR software for recording the output from digital TV tuner cards record in .ts format, because that is what the cards output and do not encrypt recordings. However, Windows 7's and Windows 8.x's Media Center use .wtv format, while Vista's Media Center uses DVR-MS format for recordings. .wtv and .DVR-MS support encryption, but unless you are recording channels from some kind of conditional access service, the programming won't be flagged "copy once" to trigger encryption.

    Some UK broadcasts use H.264, if I'm not mistaken, so you will need to use something other than .mpg files for streaming recordings from them. There is a paid editor/converter, VideoReDo TV Suite H.264, that can fix errors in MPEG-2 and H.264 .ts files, edit the files, and output to a container file format other than .ts, DVR-MS, or .wtv that is more friendly for streaming. You could take a look at it to see which of its output formats are supported by your TV.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 27th Apr 2014 at 17:02.
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