Recommendation for recording satellite HD to a PC

[cottage]

Can I ask for recommendations or your experience in recording satellite HD to a PC?

Here's what I want to do:
-Record HD programs from a satellite receiver to my PC for later editing.
-I also want to record the video with Dolby 5.1

Here's what I have:
-HD satellite receiver in a home theatre setup.
-2 PC to choose from (AMD 2.1 GHz or an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz)
-both are located about a 25' cable run from the satellite receiver

This is what I'm considering:
Hauppagauge HD-PVR2
Hauppagauge Colossus

I'm assuming that I'll need to use a Component connection to overcome HDCP. Therefore, I'd need separate Component cables and optical audio cables and that means the Colossus would be necessary.

However, both Hauppagauge capture cards are a little more expensive that I'd like.

Therefore....
Am I on the right track?
Are my PCs powerful enough to capture the satellite video?
What are your experiences with this set up?
Is there a cheaper alternative that will give me a high quality capture?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[jman98]

You're looking at a fairly weak PC from your choices, but as the Hauppauge uses its own chip to encode, I think you will be OK. You'll need a dual core CPU at a minimum. Check the website for the recommended minimum.

The 2 you propose can encode Dolby, but ONLY if BOTH of the following conditions are met. NO EXCEPTIONS!
1) The source must be in Dolby.
2) The source is connected to the Hauppauge card/device via optical cable.
If either or both of those conditions are not met, the 2 devices will record the audio in AAC format.

Both Hauppauge choices record in H.264 only. I have the Colossus and I like it, but it comes with an old version of ArcSoft ShowBiz for recording and I refuse to upgrade it because the upgraded one does not allow you to set the bit rate of your recordings. It contains some options that you can set that the old version doesn't have, but not being able to set the bit rate is unacceptable to me. The Colossus can record HDMI but only if it's unencrypted so you're probably wise to just use component video. That's what I use. I don't have the HD-PVR2 but I'm pretty sure it can record via optical and component too.

[Tom Saurus]

cottage: A thing to consider is how to edit those recordings. I ended up trying the trial version of VideoReDo and found it can get the job done. Also you should determine what you intend to do with these recordings. If you intend to encode them to a smaller file size or are you going to make Blu Ray discs. I am glad you have a receiver that has component output. It seems we are heading to a point in the future were HDMI will be the only output available and when you factor the difficulties that HDCP may hamper what you can record.

jman98 and some others here have a lot of knowledge on this subject. Why I mentioned encoding to a smaller size, is that your recordings can start eating up hard drive space fairly quickly depending on how much you record. I also mentioned it because encoding takes processing power. If you ever have the money to spare and you see an i7 on at a reasonable price consider buying one, as the power one of those computers has could really help when it comes to encoding.

[cottage]

Thank you for the input.

I'm still considering the Hauppagauge solutions but I'm looking to see what is available in a combined Graphics and TV capture board. In one of my computers, I have an ATI 8500 All in Wonder. In it's day it was a pretty good board and it does a good job of capturing analogue video.

I've been looking at the AMD & NVIDIA sites but can't seem to find a current board that combines graphics and HDTV capture.

Am I missing something?

[Rick2875]

I'm using the Colossus on Bell TV. Just one little problem to deal with - WD TV Live Plus doesn't like the Colossus HDMI format. I converted the *.TS to *.MKV using handbrake and it works although it takes some time. 2 minutes for a 6 minute clip on a 6 core 3.2 GHz AMD Phenom

What I've read is that on HDMI, the Colossus just saves the raw data. I'll try the 2 other formats available.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/329139-Hauppauge-Colossus-HD-PVR

Good news it seem that using Colossus HDMI on dishnetwork and directv work with no HDCP lockdown
There are people on SageTV forum check it out rigth here http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52718 go to page 31

[usually_quiet]

Thank you for the input.

I'm still considering the Hauppagauge solutions but I'm looking to see what is available in a combined Graphics and TV capture board. In one of my computers, I have an ATI 8500 All in Wonder. In it's day it was a pretty good board and it does a good job of capturing analogue video.

I've been looking at the AMD & NVIDIA sites but can't seem to find a current board that combines graphics and HDTV capture.

Am I missing something?

No, you aren't missing anything. There are no current VGA cards that include video capture and a TV tuner on the same board. Even the final product sold using the All In Wonder name, the Diamond All-In-Wonder HD Premium AIW5000, wasn't like previous models. It was two pieces, a discrete VGA card and a discrete hybrid TV tuner/capture device. http://www.diamondmm.com/AIW5000.php

[Rick2875]

I'm using the Colossus on Bell TV. Just one little problem to deal with - WD TV Live Plus doesn't like the Colossus HDMI format. I converted the *.TS to *.MKV using handbrake and it works although it takes some time. 2 minutes for a 6 minute clip on a 6 core 3.2 GHz AMD Phenom

What I've read is that on HDMI, the Colossus just saves the raw data. I'll try the 2 other formats available.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/329139-Hauppauge-Colossus-HD-PVR

Good news it seem that using Colossus HDMI on dishnetwork and directv work with no HDCP lockdown
There are people on SageTV forum check it out rigth here http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52718 go to page 31

Update -> Turns out it was a drive / installation problem that caused the Colossus files to have no audio with the WD TV Live.

[[_chef_]]

Can I ask for recommendations or your experience in recording satellite HD to a PC?

Here's what I want to do:
-Record HD programs from a satellite receiver to my PC for later editing.
-I also want to record the video with Dolby 5.1

That was common in past years, eg. 2000-2002.
Nowadays that is sooo obsolete and wasted time.
These days almost any SAT STB is a PVR.

However, both Hauppagauge capture cards are a little more expensive that I'd like.

The company you mean is called Hauppauge.

[cottage]

That was common in past years, eg. 2000-2002.
Nowadays that is sooo obsolete and wasted time.
These days almost any SAT STB is a PVR.

[_chef_]

I'm sure that you meant to help.

However, my STB is a PVR and I do record most programs on it. I want to get some of these recorded programs off the PVR so that they can be edited to remove unwanted parts and then archived. Maybe it's different in Germany but here in Canada, the programs recorded on the PVR can not be directly transferred to a computer for editing. That's why I'm looking at the Hauppauge.

In fact, I've ordered the Hauppauge 1212 and will post back with my results once it is installed. (I have a little carpentry work to do before it is installed.)

[dragonkeeper]

Can I ask for recommendations or your experience in recording satellite HD to a PC?

Here's what I want to do:
-Record HD programs from a satellite receiver to my PC for later editing.
-I also want to record the video with Dolby 5.1

That was common in past years, eg. 2000-2002.
Nowadays that is sooo obsolete and wasted time.
These days almost any SAT STB is a PVR

Really?!! Have you been living under a rock? Not to be insulting or anything. Why do projects like Media Portal and XBMC exist they both have very active communities with many of the users doing the exact thing Cottage wishes to do, granted its not their sole purpose but is a big part. I've been recording TV shows from TV top PC since the first ALL-In-Wonder was introduced (1994 I believe), and i thought it was a god send I was able to convert decades of TV shows to digital format. And I tried a PVR once and found it to be utterly useless, i know they have gotten better over time but they still do not hold a candle to home grown solution using media portal. Media Portal even has a plugin that will allow you to edit your video files using Video Redo. Add to the fact that in most cases you have to hack your PVR to get the files off and in most cases the hack will void warranty, in extreme cases you have to remove the hard drive to mount in another system which may still prove to be a waste of time I've heard many reports of all files being encrypted.

[[_chef_]]

Hi cottage,

probably we both meant something different, therefore some confusion.
You meant recording incl. transcoding (not direct recording) from some sort of sat source, right?!

I meant direct recording via a DVB-S/2 card in a computer. That Hauppauge cards you mentioned always convert the inpout stream before recording to the hdd/output files.

Which input sources do you have? DirecTV or FTA sat or...?

I use some DVB-S2 cards, eg TBS 6925, Prof 8000, Prof 7500, FireDTV DVB-S etc.
Since a few days here is even a 4k channel transmitted via eutelsat10a (10e) which can be received with most of them. Stunning stuff!


@dragonkeeper,
hold your breath. Do you have any clue about satreception (especially here)? I doubt it. Maybe I was confused about the way of working on with such content from satreception in NA, but what you describe is all about ANALOGUE! I talked about true digital reception and work. Got it??

[cottage]

Hi cottage,

probably we both meant something different, therefore some confusion.
You meant recording incl. transcoding (not direct recording) from some sort of sat source, right?!

I meant direct recording via a DVB-S/2 card in a computer. That Hauppauge cards you mentioned always convert the inpout stream before recording to the hdd/output files.

Which input sources do you have? DirecTV or FTA sat or...?

I use some DVB-S2 cards, eg TBS 6925, Prof 8000, Prof 7500, FireDTV DVB-S etc.
Since a few days here is even a 4k channel transmitted via eutelsat10a (10e) which can be received with most of them. Stunning stuff!


@dragonkeeper,
hold your breath. Do you have any clue about satreception (especially here)? I doubt it. Maybe I was confused about the way of working on with such content from satreception in NA, but what you describe is all about ANALOGUE! I talked about true digital reception and work. Got it??

No harm. No foul.

Yes. I expect that we are talking about different sat systems.

I have a Bell TV PVR that has an internal hard drive. I also have an external hard drive attached for extra capacity.

As I understand it, the internal HD records the digital stream in a LINIX format. The external HD records the digital stream in an encrypted proprietary format. I have read that some people have been able to open the PVR case and connect the internal HD to their computer and off load the digital files and use them. This is not a practical solution for my setup. I understand that no one has been able to crack the encryption on the external hard drive so I can't move it to the computer and off load.

I can't connect and HDMI output from the PVR to the computer for recording because all content is protected by HDCP.

Therefore, the only way to extract programs from the PVR is to use the component output because this output does not have HDCP. Either of the Hauppauge units will do this.

[[_chef_]]

Yeah, all clear now.
It's all about crippled and crypted PVRs then.
No chance to get the content off their HDDs without transcoding (digital>out via component>digital transcoding via hauppauge)...

[Brad]

Okay, you already know about the option to get the contents of the internal hard drive. That is faster than recording real-time over component IMO.

Which part of Canada are you in? (just curious)

You can record from the HDMI output, using an HDCP stripper. PM me for details.

[cottage]

Reporting the results....

I decided to buy the Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR.

I attempted to install the 1212 at my AV cabinet and run a 25' long USB cable. This didn't work. The computer would not recognize that the 1212 was connected.

I purchased 25' component and 25' SPIDF cables and located the 1212 at my computer and it works like a charm.

As mentioned in one of the replies, I know that using a component cable results in an analogue conversion and probably reduces quality. However, my recording quality is great. If there is a reduction in quality, I'm having trouble seeing it. (and I do have an excellent HDTV)