DivX

[bluesherpa]

Hi =)

Currently using the Hauppauge 2250, but are there other cards currently available on the market that record to H.264 (DivX, mkv) or XviD (avi)?

I read that SageTV works from cards from Pinnacle, but it seems like those cards are no longer available. Any others available?

[stanger89]

Hauppauge HD PVR records in H.264.

[Clift]

The Hauppauge HD PVR records HD in h.264 format, but that requires an HD Cable Box as it's not a tuner, but a capture card. All other cards that I am aware of are MPEG 2. Additionally you could always use SJQ to set up conversions to convert your HVR2250 recordings to divx.

[bluesherpa]

In SageTV it gives me no option to set the recording quality, because it reports that, "Digital TV tuners do not use recording quality settings since they simply save the received digital broadcast."

When a show is recorded, the resulting file has an mpg extension that DivX Pro says is an MPEG2 file.

That's not an H.264 file is it? Sorry, I feel like a total newbie on this stuff. I'm just trying to find the fastest / best way to archive the shows in mkv or avi (xvid) format. I'm not sure if I should be (1) using a different capture card, (2) using DivX Pro to convert the files, or (3) using something like badaboom to convert the files.

That also doesn't account for the step where the commercials get removed, which obviously saves a lot of space.

What do you recommend? How do you guys handle this?

[wayner]

Why do you want Divx files in the first place. They take up less space but they are harder to edit and I don't believe that automatic commercial skipping software works with Divx files. With hard drive prices being so low these days there really isn't much advantage in using Divx files. And like Clift said you can always use a process to automatically convert using a few different tools in Sage but it might make sense to convert to other formats, such as MP4, to make your media playable on other hardware like iPod/iPhone/iPad, etc.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by bluesherpa

In SageTV it gives me no option to set the recording quality, because it reports that, "Digital TV tuners do not use recording quality settings since they simply save the received digital broadcast."

When a show is recorded, the resulting file has an mpg extension that DivX Pro says is an MPEG2 file.

Digital TV broadcasts from over the air or QAM (unencrypted digital cable) are not encoded by your capture device - they are sent by the TV station in MPEG-2 format and the "tuning" device just stores the bytes received from the broadcaster directly to your hard drive. This is NOT an H.264 file.

The Hauppauge HD-PVR is a capture device that accepts component video input (red, greeen, blue RCA cables) from a digital cable box or satellite box and it encodes these files to the H.264 format. It is pretty much the only device of this sort that can capture HD signals although it encodes an analog signal as component is an analog format.

MPEG-2 is very widely used since that is the format of DVDs, broadcast TV, cable, satellite and more. In addition there are a lot of TV tuning devices with hardware encoders that encode files to MPEG-2 format although these devices are starting to become somewhat obsolete. It is generally very easy to edit these MPEG-2 files and very easy to author to DVDs. Formats such as H.264 or Divx are becoming the newer standards but editors for these formats are harder to find and the files take a lot more horsepower to decode. Older PCs (and low powered new PCs like netbooks) may have trouble decoding HD files that are encoded in H.264, especially if they are 1080p resolution.