Capturing HDTV in Europe

[Brian2006]

I'm new to this forum and although I did perform a search, I could not find anything on this, so forgive me if I'm asking a question that's been asked before.

I live in the Netherlands and recently got myself an HDTV decorder. I've read on several boards that you can capture an HDTV source if you have a firewire out on the decoder, but unfortunately that's not the case with me. I would however like to capture HD material. The problem is that HDTV is only being transmitted by cable here, and during my research I came across a lot of people saying that it's difficult to capture from a cable source, since it's protected most of the time. To make a long story short, does anyone have any ways of capturing HDTV via cable? OTA is not an option, neither is satellite. Thanks in advance!

[Abbadon]

Hello Brian,

I wish I could be breathing the cold air of your country, the heat is unbearable down here in my tropical Island.

Now, regarding your question about HDTV, I have to say that I have never had the chance to experience HDTV through cable, so I cannot really help you in that section. However, I have read of experiences from people in Europe who are able to watch cable using a DVB-C computer card such as the Nexus-C, and a software called ProgDVB, but as you said, the encryption system used by your cable provider won't let you watch protected content and circumvention talk is not allowed in this forum.

There are a couple of forums, some of them in UK and others in Germany, where this topic is discussed, maybe you could get more information from them.

Buena suerte.

[Brian2006]

First of all, thank you for the reply. Second, I wish I could be breathing the hot air of the Caribbean, it's been way too long since the last 'hot' day here (today was 20 celsius, 68 fahrenheit).

I will look into those other forums. I know it's possible to capture the video, since I recently saw some screencaps of a Dutch HD channel taken by a video site. If all else fails, I could ask them how they did it.

[edDV]

Here are some basic references on DVB-C (Europe cable). As said, there are PC tuners that capture DVB-C but always read user reviews before assuming a card will work for you. Look for a user that shares your particular cable company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-C
https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards?dvbc=1
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/tv-cards/hauppauge-wintv-dvb-c/