VideoHelp Forum
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 14 of 14
Thread
  1. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    I'm looking to capture an online TV stream. The reason for this is, because the only TV box in my house is far away from my Room and i don't really use it, but there a few things on TV that are very rare and never released on DVD/VHS and i want to record them. I was wondering what would be the best way to go about doing this? Should i just use bandicam or should i actually buy a capture card or something like it to record my screen?

    Would the capture card help improve constant FPS and would it put less stress on my PC? I tried recording it using Fraps and that just takes a huge FPS drop after like 3mins. So what would be the best way to capture this stream? Should i invest in getting a capture card of some kind?

    I'm just worried about recording software taking huge FPS drops while recording a 1hr and 30min + steam. Making the end product having huge fps drops through out.

    I'm just looking for the cheapest option to get capture in HD. I know that bandicam would be the cheapest, because i already own it, but just want to see if it would be worth investing into a cheap capture card.
    Last edited by kkiller23; 3rd Sep 2014 at 19:27.
    Quote Quote  
  2. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    The "Computer Details" in your VideoHelp profile are not filled in, but from what you wrote, it seems like your computer's CPU is not powerful enough to manage screen capture in HD using software.

    Capture devices that hardware encode (to reduce demand on a PC's CPU) and capture at least 720p aren't all that cheap. Expect to pay between $100 to $200 for one. You may also need to buy accessories (adapters) or want additional software too, such as a video editor.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 3rd Sep 2014 at 22:27.
    Quote Quote  
  3. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    The "Computer Details" in your VideoHelp profile are not filled in, but from what you wrote, it seems like your computer's CPU is not powerful enough to manage screen capture in HD using software.

    Capture devices that hardware encode (to reduce demand on a PC's CPU) and capture at least 720p aren't all that cheap. Expect to pay between $100 to $200 for one. You may also need to buy accessories (cables and adapters) or want additional software too, such as a video editor.
    I have an i5 2500k @4.1ghz, gtx 570 and 8gb of ram

    It's pretty much just Fraps that has issues. I can record it pretty well in 1080p using bandicam and x264 crf 10. I did a test record on a show of about 30min. Came out with a very nice looking 5gb file. I just notice that sometimes it looks like the file speeds up and plays a little faster then it's suppose to for some reason. I can't tell if it's just the TV steam itself or the record.



    What would be the cheapest option. If i wanted to record tv from a cable box? I could buy like a CableCARD receiver and then just get a cable card from my ISP and record that way to my PC? I'm just trying to better understand the best way to go about capturing TV. I'm not sure if it's better to just record the live stream my ISP gives me or to invest some money into actually getting some kind of hardware or something to record it via cable box or something.

    Can someone explain to me how people record live TV from a cable box and the best ways to actually record HDTV?
    Quote Quote  
  4. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    I have an i5 2500k @4.1ghz, gtx 570 and 8gb of ram

    It's pretty much just Fraps that has issues. I can record it pretty well in 1080p using bandicam and x264 crf 10. I did a test record on a show of about 30min. Came out with a very nice looking 5gb file. I just notice that sometimes it looks like the file speeds up and plays a little faster then it's suppose to for some reason. I can't tell if it's just the TV steam itself or the record.



    What would be the cheapest option. If i wanted to record tv from a cable box? I could buy like a CableCARD receiver and then just get a cable card from my ISP and record that way to my PC? I'm just trying to better understand the best way to go about capturing TV. I'm not sure if it's better to just record the live stream my ISP gives me or to invest some money into actually getting some kind of capture card or something to record it via cable box or something.

    Can someone explain to me how people record live TV from a cable box and the best ways to actually record HDTV?
    I know very little about screen capture, Some people here swear by Mirillis Action, others use PlayOn to record from the Internet.

    I know quite a bit about recording from a set top box with an HD capture device and using a CableCARD tuner. What service provider are we talking about? Your provider determines if the option of using a CableCARD tuner is available to you and whether or not the recordings made with a CableCARD will be portable or locked to the one PC used to make them.
    Quote Quote  
  5. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    I have an i5 2500k @4.1ghz, gtx 570 and 8gb of ram

    It's pretty much just Fraps that has issues. I can record it pretty well in 1080p using bandicam and x264 crf 10. I did a test record on a show of about 30min. Came out with a very nice looking 5gb file. I just notice that sometimes it looks like the file speeds up and plays a little faster then it's suppose to for some reason. I can't tell if it's just the TV steam itself or the record.



    What would be the cheapest option. If i wanted to record tv from a cable box? I could buy like a CableCARD receiver and then just get a cable card from my ISP and record that way to my PC? I'm just trying to better understand the best way to go about capturing TV. I'm not sure if it's better to just record the live stream my ISP gives me or to invest some money into actually getting some kind of capture card or something to record it via cable box or something.

    Can someone explain to me how people record live TV from a cable box and the best ways to actually record HDTV?
    I know very little about screen capture, Some people here swear by Mirillis Action, others use PlayOn to record from the Internet.

    I know quite a bit about recording from a set top box with an HD capture device and using a CableCARD tuner. What service provider are we talking about? Your provider determines if the option of using a CableCARD tuner is available to you and whether or not the recordings made with a CableCARD will be portable or locked to one PC.

    I'm with Time Warner Cable.
    Quote Quote  
  6. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    I have good news and bad news with respect to CableCARD tuners.

    For Time Warner as it currently is, you can use a CableCARD tuner, but you need a both an MCard CableCARD and a Tuning Adapter for Hauppauge's, SiliconDust's, or Ceton's tuners. Only your local channels will be marked "Copy Freely" and be portable. Everything else will be "Copy Once" and restricted to use on one PC. Plus, if you have to re-install Windows, you will loose access to them. You will have no other options for recording other than Windows Media Center. Windows 7 works best. Windows 8.x may still have some issues.

    Time Warner was just acquired by Comcast. I'm sure this will mean changes to your current service and maybe to mine. (I have Comcast service,) Comcast currently tends to use "Copy Freely" for most channels in most franchises, which means most recordings are portable and not locked in the PC that made them. ..but that could easily change. The FCC allows "Copy Once" to be used for everything but local channels, at the cableco's discretion.
    Quote Quote  
  7. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    I have good news and bad news with respect to CableCARD tuners.

    For Time Warner as it currently is, you can use a CableCARD tuner, but you need a both an MCard CableCARD and a Tuning Adapter for Hauppauge's, SiliconDust's, or Ceton's tuners. Only your local channels will be marked "Copy Freely" and be portable. Everything else will be "Copy Once" and restricted to use on one PC. Plus, if you have to re-install Windows, you will loose access to them. You will have no other options for recording other than Windows Media Center. Windows 7 works best. Windows 8.x may still have some issues.

    Time Warner was just acquired by Comcast. I'm sure this will mean changes to your current service and maybe to mine. (I have Comcast service,) Comcast currently tends to use "Copy Freely" for most channels in most franchises, which means most recordings are portable and not locked in the PC that made them. ..but that could easily change. The FCC allows "Copy Once" to be used for everything but local channels, at the cableco's discretion.
    What about using one of the TV boxes from TWC. Could you record the signal from the box to the TV to your PC with out using Windows Media center and using 3rd party recording software?

    I just thought that maybe getting a TV Card would make less work. I have a Samsung cable box from TW cable now. Could i record the signal from that with out being forced to use WMC?
    Last edited by kkiller23; 3rd Sep 2014 at 23:46.
    Quote Quote  
  8. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    What about using one of the TV boxes from TWC. Could you record the signal from the box to the TV to your PC with out using Windows Media center and using 3rd party recording software?

    I just thought that maybe getting a TV Card would make less work. I have a Samsung cable box from TW cable now. Could i record the signal from that with out being forced to use WMC?
    You can certainly use an HD capture device to record the output from your cable box. It was a tough decision, but for various reasons, I decided to do that myself and forgo the CableCARD tuner for now. If you plan to use your PC to record when you are not there to monitor the process, you will need PVR software and a compatible capture device for that software. Hauppauge's HD-PVR 2 (do not get the gaming edition version), Colossus, and original HD-PVR are compatible with Windows 7's Media Center, JRiver Media Center, Media Portal or NextPVR. SageTV can work too, if you can find someone willing to sell you an existing license. SageTV was bought by Google and no longer sells new licenses, although they still support existing customers. Channel changing is accomplished via a built in IR blaster on the capture device, for the most part, but it can be difficult to set up. You should probably get an HDMI splitter if you want to use HDMI for capture on the Colossus or HD-PVR 2. This ViewHD splitter is what I have and it has worked well so far. The Hauppuage HD-PVR only provides component video for recording.

    If you plan to be present while recording, you have more choices for hardware, but all the other HD capture devices that do hardware encoding only work with the maker's own bundled software, which is usually designed to be operated manually because it is intended for video game capture.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 4th Sep 2014 at 00:41.
    Quote Quote  
  9. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    What about using one of the TV boxes from TWC. Could you record the signal from the box to the TV to your PC with out using Windows Media center and using 3rd party recording software?

    I just thought that maybe getting a TV Card would make less work. I have a Samsung cable box from TW cable now. Could i record the signal from that with out being forced to use WMC?
    You can certainly use an HD capture device to record the output from your cable box. It was a tough decision, but for various reasons, I decided to do that myself and forgo the CableCARD tuner for now. If you plan to use your PC to record when you are not there to monitor the process, you will need PVR software and a compatible capture device for that software. Hauppauge's HD-PVR 2 (do not get the gaming edition version), Colossus, and original HD-PVR are compatible with Windows 7's Media Center, JRiver Media Center, Media Portal or NextPVR. SageTV can work too, if you can find someone willing to sell you an existing license. SageTV was bought by Google and no longer sells new licenses, although they still support existing customers. Channel changing is accomplished via a built in IR blaster on the capture device, for the most part, but it can be difficult to set up. You should probably get an HDMI splitter if you want to use HDMI for capture on the Colossus or HD-PVR 2. This ViewHD splitter is what I have and it has worked well so far. The Hauppuage HD-PVR only provides component video for recording.

    If you plan to be present while recording, you have more choices for hardware, but all the other HD capture devices that do hardware encoding only work with the maker's own bundled software, which is usually designed to be operated manually because it is intended for video game capture.

    I was looking at the HD PVR 2, are there any other brands that do the same thing for a bit cheaper?

    These will be able to record every HD channel the TV Box gets, correct?
    Quote Quote  
  10. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    I was looking at the HD PVR 2, are there any other brands that do the same thing for a bit cheaper?
    There are none I know of that are cheaper, assuming that you want HDMI, plus a USB interface and hardware encoding. The Colossus is close in features and costs a little less, but it is a PCI-e card. If you want to use PVR software, Hauppauge is the only brand with good support.

    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    These will be able to record every HD channel the TV Box gets, correct?
    Yes, if you have the right splitter for HDMI (to remove HDCP) or are willing to use component video.

    It is late here so I'm now done for the night.
    Quote Quote  
  11. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    I was looking at the HD PVR 2, are there any other brands that do the same thing for a bit cheaper?
    There are none I know of that are cheaper, assuming that you want HDMI, plus a USB interface and hardware encoding. The Colossus is close in features and costs a little less, but it is a PCI-e card. If you want to use PVR software, Hauppauge is the only brand with good support.

    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    These will be able to record every HD channel the TV Box gets, correct?
    Yes, if you have the right splitter for HDMI (to remove HDCP) or are willing to use component video.

    It is late here so I'm now done for the night.
    So just to double check.

    So if i buy the HD PVR 2, i just have to get an HDMI splitter that doesn't support HDCP and then i just connect my Cable box to the splitter and my HDPVR 2 to the other HDMI output and then i can record when ever is on the TV box?

    Can i record one show on the HD PVR 2 while watching another show on my tv using the other HDMI? I know it doesn't sound possible, just want to double check that it's not possible though.

    Thanks for all the help by the way
    Quote Quote  
  12. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    I was looking at the HD PVR 2, are there any other brands that do the same thing for a bit cheaper?
    I remembered an alternative to the HD-PVR 2, the Roxio Game Capture HD Pro. http://www.amazon.com/Roxio-Game-Capture-HD-PRO/dp/B008YTAGGW I don't recommend buying it, but if you want cheaper, it is that if you buy from Amazon. It is not as good as the the HD-PVR 2 in any respect. There is no IR blaster. The bundled software is glitchy and there is no other capture software that works with it. You need to provide your own A/V cables because none are bundled with it. Those will cost you between $5 and $10 apiece minimum if you need to buy them. The only cable in the package is a USB cable.

    Amazon and B&H Photo and Video have the HD-PVR 2 1512 at a discounted price
    http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-1512-Definition-Personal-Technology/dp/B00BA4ILX8/ref=...qid=1409852000
    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/925432-REG/hauppauge_1512_hd_pvr_2_video.html

    B&H Photo and Video is a well-known retailer with a good reputation. I bought my Hauppage Colossus HD PVR from them as well as several other items in the past, and never had any problems with my orders.

    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    So just to double check.

    So if i buy the HD PVR 2, i just have to get an HDMI splitter that doesn't support HDCP and then i just connect my Cable box to the splitter and my HDPVR 2 to the other HDMI output and then i can record when ever is on the TV box?
    HD capture devices won't normally record an HDCP protected signal, but HDMI from a cablebox is often HDCP protected. Some (but not all) HDMI splitters remove HDCP as a side effect. The ViewHD splitter I linked to in another post does that. A splitter has two outputs and one input. The input is connected to the video source, your cable box. One output is normally connected to to the TV. The other output is connected to the capture device. In addition to the splitter, you will may need to buy one or two HDMI cables to make the connections.

    If you want to save some money, try component video first. Your cable box probably has that connection too. The Hauppauge HD PVR2 1512 has the ability to record from its component video input and comes with all the cables that you need to record TV using component video. There is no HDCP or other copy protection to worry about using the component video connection, so no splitter is needed. You can connect your TV to the HD-PVR 2's HDMI out to see what you are recording. For some cable boxes, HDMI and component video are so close in quality that it is difficult to tell them apart. For others, HDMI is noticeably better than component. I can't tell you which will be true for your cable box.

    The software that comes with the HD-PVR2 1512 is probably going to be OK for recording. Use the "TS" option for your files. Other options are harder to edit. If you find you want to use a different editor than the one bundled with the HD-PVR 2, I recommend VideoReDo's TV Suite H.264. It costs about $100 but it is better than anything else I have tried for editing all kinds of TV recordings.

    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    Can i record one show on the HD PVR 2 while watching another show on my tv using the other HDMI? I know it doesn't sound possible, just want to double check that it's not possible though.

    Thanks for all the help by the way
    Am HDMI splitter doesn't allow recording one program while watching another. An HDMI splitter can only provide the audio and video from one channel at a time to two devices, in this case your TV and capture device.

    I'm glad I could be of help.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 4th Sep 2014 at 13:36.
    Quote Quote  
  13. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Wow, thanks for all the help. You pretty much walked me though step, by step for setting up the HD-PVR 2. You are a very generous god.

    I'm gonna save up a bit of money and invest in getting a HD-PVR 2. Since it will allow me to record gameplay on my PC as well with out using the processing power that is needed using fraps or bandicam.
    Quote Quote  
  14. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    Wow, thanks for all the help. You pretty much walked me though step, by step for setting up the HD-PVR 2. You are a very generous god.
    You'd never have written that if you had happened to be around when I was trying to get my new Colossus to work properly. Trust me, I'm a mere mortal with 2 months HD capture experience and a few years of experience with SD capture and recording TV off antenna with a TV tuner card.

    Originally Posted by kkiller23 View Post
    I'm gonna save up a bit of money and invest in getting a HD-PVR 2. Since it will allow me to record gameplay on my PC as well with out using the processing power that is needed using fraps or bandicam.
    Nothing wrong with waiting.
    Quote Quote  
Visit our sponsor! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!