Watching multiple streams from a single capture card?

[Drunia]

Is there some way to, say, have an HTPC with a capture card (price not an object) and a media server and I can stream individual different channels to multiple displays? So if I wired my house up with LAN (I have) and had a single input coming into the house that was carrying all the channels could I split the signal at the HTPC into channel 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., and then route it around the house through a media server? Trying to be as clear as possible here. I want to be able to have a single computer capture the entire Coax input and break it up into channels that I can watch simultaneously.

Or, alternatively, if I a limited to 1 channel per card, could I put a bunch of cheap capture cards in a real server? I get computer parts cheap so setting up even four servers at ~6 cards each would give me 24 channels and I don't watch nearly that many.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: When I say "channel" I of course mean TV channel and not one of the hundred some odd other meanings it can have on a forum like this. >.<

[jagabo]

The most I've ever seen on one card is two tuners (like a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 500). I've heard of people putting as many as four single tuner cards (WinTV PVR-250 for example) in a PC.

Streaming 48 channels simultaneously is probably beyond what a single computer can handle unless the capture card performs the compression.

You're probably better off having a few capture cards that you can control remotely. I don't know what software can do that though.

[Drunia]

The most I've ever seen on one card is two tuners (like a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 500). I've heard of people putting as many as four single tuner cards (WinTV PVR-250 for example) in a PC.

Streaming 48 channels simultaneously is probably beyond what a single computer can handle unless the capture card performs the compression.

You're probably better off having a few capture cards that you can control remotely. I don't know what software can do that though.

What would be the "best" two tuner card then? And is there a card that is two-tuner AND has good encoding on the card itself? Or is there even a single tuner card like that?

<----Newbie.

[edDV]

Check out the Snapstream Medusa project.
http://www.snapstream.com/community/articles/medusa/

If you use PVR-500's you could have 16 channels in. The out side would need network distribution.

[olyteddy]

How about a bunch of SlingBoxes?

[Drunia]

olyteddy: Slingboxes? Wasn't kidding about being a newbie. I'll google it and see if it'd work though, thanks.

edDV: That is cool (and basically what I'd have to do I think). So basically I'd need something to translate the TCP/IP stream into something television watchable. Wonder what the length on the cords from the computer like that would be. Hypothetically you could just use one and run BeTwin or something on it.

[edDV]

olyteddy: Slingboxes? Wasn't kidding about being a newbie. I'll google it and see if it'd work though, thanks.

edDV: That is cool (and basically what I'd have to do I think). So basically I'd need something to translate the TCP/IP stream into something television watchable. Wonder what the length on the cords from the computer like that would be. Hypothetically you could just use one and run BeTwin or something on it.

Distribution is non-trivial. You could load the computer up with multiple display cards and distribute as baseband video/audio or you could network to a computer node near the TV. The TV itself is not a network device.

[jagabo]

edDV: That is cool (and basically what I'd have to do I think). So basically I'd need something to translate the TCP/IP stream into something television watchable.

The medusa project is for recording from several capture cards at the same time. You will need software to stream those in real-time. Then, if you want to watch on a TV rather than a computer, you'll need hardware and software to decode the streams to analog TV outputs. I hope you were serious that cost was no concern, professional systems to do this sort of thing costs tens of thousands of dollars.

Why don't you just split the cable coax with a distribution amp and run coax to each room? That would be much cheaper.

[edDV]

Better to hire a local video guru to help you design a system to your needs. A specialist will have CEDIA certification.

[Drunia]

Better to hire a local video guru to help you design a system to your needs. A specialist will have CEDIA certification.

Eh, I'm a do it myself kind of person. No matter how long I have to fiddle with it. Doing the project is more fun then having the project finished. I just needed a hobby. I'm just trying to figure out what hardware/software is out there to make this work because I have no prior experience with this. I could probably spend around 50k on this. Quality of single is my primary concern.

jagabo: Because I have a vision for the way I want it to be when I'm done and if it can't be that way I'd rather not do the project at all. The PVR-500 cards have two tuners and say they encode in real time. Assuming the encode quality is good, I'd need 3 of them to do 5 TVs with independant channel control. Then I can stream that signal around my LAN. My only remaining questions are what is the bitrate of the PVR-500 encode, what is the best software for streaming it, and what is the best hardware solution for maintaining quality of the signal to output to the TV? Yes I have enough spare computers around to put a graphics card with DVI out near eah TV, but there has to be a more elegant solution.

[jagabo]

The PVR-500 is a hardware MPEG 2 encoder with dual tuners and dual MPEG compressors. You can pick different frame sizes from 352x240 to 720x480, with video bitrates up to 15,000 kbps and MP2 audio bitrates up to 384 kbps. I'm not aware of any software that will stream from any of the Hauppauge PVR cards. Nor any software that will allow you to select channels over the network. You could always write your own of course.

I hear that you can stream from a PVR-150 (single tuner) with VLC. Maybe it will work with the PVR-500 and the latest drivers from Hauppauge.

[edDV]

What you are describing could be considered a home level IPTV system. With that budget you might want encoder cards built for feeding IP networks.
http://www.optibase.com/

I haven't looked at these cards in a few years but Optibase and their competition specialize in this kind of encoder. They may have tuners or you could use a stack of cable boxes or DTV tuners. Check out VideoLan http://www.videolan.org/ as one option for distribution.