Plextor PX-TV402U

[Alig Proudblade]

Does anyone know if you can use multiple Plextor PX-TV402U's on a system?

Thanks in advance.

[Opus4]

The Plextor driver update page says "Implemented support for allowing multiple TV402Us to be installed on the same system", but I don't have 2 to try out. I also don't know if any other users have posted feedback on that, so you may want to contact SageTV tech support to see if they ever tried it.

- Andy

[dvd_maniac]

I have 2 and I can't get it them to work.

I for one do not see why I bought 2 of these anyways. I like decent quality (At or a little better than VHS) with very small file sizes. I tried the mp4 and divx realtime encodes and they just plain stink... I get much better quality capturing at high mpeg-2 and than I use AutoGK to compress it to 300MB /hr.
When trying to do DIvx or MP4 at even 600MB per hour using the Plextor I get quality that is 2x worse than the same bitrate in mpeg-2.

What results are other users of the Plextor getting with realtime encodes?

[Alig Proudblade]

Is there a noticeable improvement in picture quality when using the Plextor to encode as opposed to the built-in Sage codecs?

[korben_dallas]

I use DivX High for Futurama and DivX Highest for Nash Bridges. Best is my system default.

The DivX High is fine for Futurama cause its a cartoon. DivX Highest looks great for Nash Bridges. I have been meaning to setup another favorite to use it, so I can compare the image quality. But I struggled with some 2.2.4 issues, so haven't had a chance.

Unfortunately 2.2.3 or 2.2.4 broke MPEG-4 capturing. I am about to load up 2.2.5, hopefully it will fix it.

One thing about the DivX profiles is that SageTV will use whatever DivX codec has the highest DirectShow merit. You can find this out easily by playing a DivX video in WMP and looking at File > Properties. Some DivX codecs allow for quality vs performance settings, and some are just plain better than others, so it may not be the encoding that is causing poor playback quality.

[Opus4]

korben_dallas:
To try to improve the image quality of the DivX recordings, copy & rename one of the DivX mmc/python2_encoding lines, then customize it by setting ipb to 0. I never had a chance to try this, but I was told it might improve the quality.

Alig Proudblade:
There are no built-in SageTV codes to encode DivX, you will be using the hardware encoder on the card to do all encoding. If you meant decode, then the Plextor doesn't do that at all.

- Andy

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by Opus4

korben_dallas:
To try to improve the image quality of the DivX recordings, copy & rename one of the DivX mmc/python2_encoding lines, then customize it by setting ipb to 0. I never had a chance to try this, but I was told it might improve the quality.
- Andy

And... either the 3ivx or Xvid codecs will let you do that in the properites dialog. I don't have them loaded up at the moment, but I will as soon as I'm done w/ 2.2.5 setup.

[Alig Proudblade]

What im trying to ask, is if I record a program using SageTV only at the best recording quality and the same show using the Plextor device at its best settings, is there a noticeable difference?

Chris.

[korben_dallas]

Are you referring to a direct capture using the Plextor GoCap application?

It might be slightly better since GoCap is proprietarily accessing the hardware and not using DirectShow, but I don't think it would be easy to notice.

[prowler2000]

I'm a new user to SageTV. I am a very experienced computer person; I've been a consultant for over 20 years.

I wanted the smaller size of Divx and the hardware encoding, so I bought the Plextor TV402U and configured a machine for the soul purpose of recording. I live in two cities (Denver and LA), so in Denver I use the TV tuner on comcast. I set everything up ... no real problems, all seemed to work fine. I'm using the trail version of 2.1. I set the unit to record in DIVX portable high quality ... good enough for me, I'm not recording anything so great and that format is 640x480.

The shows came across, but it seemed I had to change the recording quality for each show to DIVX portable high quality even though I set my favorites at that quality, otherwise they would record at "Best". I think I had the Plextor unit in the SageTV software set at a default of Best ... but nevertheless, my favorite setting should have overroad that. Nevertheless, I thought great, this software seems to rock, but I had scheduling conflicts ... two shows to record at once. So I bought another TV402U.

I plugged the second unit in ... and waited. I could see the record lights come on both units at once ... wow! Unfortunately, now SageTV completely ignored the DIVX high portable setting and recorded everything in "Best" ... on both units. I turned everything off, unplugged the second TV402U, everything back on ... Divx recording working again. Turned everything off, plugged the second TV402U back in, everything back on ... Divx recording not working ... back to "Best" quality. And yes, I have the latest drivers from Plextor!

I made sure the default for both of the units in SageTV was "DIVX High Quality Portable" ... yes it was ... so I preceeded to set all 30 shows in the record que back to "DIVX portable high quality" ... they all said "Best" even though the favorite default was "DIVX portable high quality".

Unfortunately I had to head back to LA. I don't know the current status and won't return for two weeks. I don't know if the 15 day trail will automatically end or if the recordings will be in DIVX format ... I wil let everyone know when I find out.

Meanwhile, here in LA, I'm setting up another trail system with a single Plextor M402U and a USB-UIRT controlling DirectTV. Unfortunately, since I only have the trail software, I cannot use the 2.2 software and test it with the Plextors ... but as soon as I know the SageTV software works with two Plextor units ... my software order will be completed.

Sorry to make this sound like a blog on my life ... but most of you know how long it takes to get everything up and running.

[korben_dallas]

I like the 1 ConvertX that I have. If I were restricted to only buying another USB device, I'd go for the Hauppage and compare the quality of the two. The great thing about the Plextor is the number of recording quality options you have. The downside however is an apparent 6Mbps capture limit (whereas the Hauppage cards can do 12Mbps).

[prowler2000]

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

I like the 1 ConvertX that I have. If I were restricted to only buying another USB device, I'd go for the Hauppage and compare the quality of the two. The great thing about the Plextor is the number of recording quality options you have. The downside however is an apparent 6Mbps capture limit (whereas the Hauppage cards can do 12Mbps).

I'm hoping the future will bring out an even better recording unit ... HDTV .... before the broadcasting flag is in the hardware. So at the current time, I'm happy with the lower bps ... but I can't wait until even larger harddrives are out and recording HDTV seems like an mp3 file today ... I remember when a 30 "MEG" harddrive was cutting edge (dating myself here). That could only hold a few MP3's.