Best input for non-hd STBs, can the HDPVR output non-hd in mpeg2?

[btrcp2000]

Long story short, I began experimenting with various things for HD and have ended up satisfied with two r5000 dish network boxes on the HD only plan, and an underutilized HDPVR currently connected to my non-HD cable box. Right now, that makes no sense because it outputs the problematic h.264 files which cannot be comskipped, even though it is not doing anything in HD.

What is the best (preferably dual tuner) card for connecting non-HD cable boxes (via composite/s-video,etc.)? Any way my HDPVR can output anything other than h.264 since I am not feeding it HD anyway?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

Long story short, I began experimenting with various things for HD and have ended up satisfied with two r5000 dish network boxes on the HD only plan, and an underutilized HDPVR currently connected to my non-HD cable box. Right now, that makes no sense because it outputs the problematic h.264 files which cannot be comskipped, even though it is not doing anything in HD.

What is the best (preferably dual tuner) card for connecting non-HD cable boxes (via composite/s-video,etc.)? Any way my HDPVR can output anything other than h.264 since I am not feeding it HD anyway?

No. The HDPVR can only output as h.264 as that what it was designed to do. The encoder built into it is an h.264 encoder. Just like a PVR150 can't output h.264 becuase it only has an MPEG2 encoder. If you need to use SD only, and you want to use comskip, then your only option is to go the route of a standard MPEG2 encoder.

[mikejaner]

Plus an HD-PVR is three times the price of an SDTV based tuner.

[btrcp2000]

i know, but I bought it before I was willing to go r5000. I don't mind hanging onto it since I already have it, so I was looking for a way to not have it collect dust.

But anyway, I am still wondering if there is a dual tuner card that can connect two STBs for SD broadcasts? I have a PVR150 which can of course do one stb and use its built in tuner, but I cannot connect two stbs without using the coax in, which is horrendous for quality.

[gplasky]

What about the Haupaggue PVR500? Dual tuner and 2 s-video inputs.

Gerry

[btrcp2000]

That's what I've been looking at. I understand that it has a built in splitter, so it only uses one coax for both internal tuners, but where is the second s-vid for an external? Is there a header/dongle, etc.?

Also, do I understand it correctly to say that it could be considered to have four things connected, but only record from two at once? In other words, plugging a coax into it counts for two internal tuners, and you could have two externals connected to the two s-vids?

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

That's what I've been looking at. I understand that it has a built in splitter, so it only uses one coax for both internal tuners, but where is the second s-vid for an external? Is there a header/dongle, etc.?

There are headers on the board for 2 expanders, so it actually has 3 S video plus 3 composites. It onlu has 3 audio inputs though, they are shared btw.

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

Also, do I understand it correctly to say that it could be considered to have four things connected, but only record from two at once? In other words, plugging a coax into it counts for two internal tuners, and you could have two externals connected to the two s-vids?

Yes, I have cabletv, cctv x2 (mux and quad) and a dvd changer connected to each of my PVR500s. 99% of the time they are tuning cabletv but on demand sage can move the crossbar and use a different input.


When you do this you must map each source, so you might have.

Hauppauge PCI capture TV Tuner
Hauppauge PCI capture Composite
Hauppauge PCI capture S Video
Hauppauge PCI capture Composite_2
Hauppauge PCI capture S Video_2
Hauppauge PCI capture Composite_3
Hauppauge PCI capture S Video_3
and
Hauppauge PCI capture #2 TV Tuner
Hauppauge PCI capture #2 Composite
Hauppauge PCI capture #2 S Video
Hauppauge PCI capture #2 Composite_2
Hauppauge PCI capture #2 S Video_2
Hauppauge PCI capture #2 Composite_3
Hauppauge PCI capture #2 S Video_3

EDIT: The ports are tied together so Composite is the same feed on both capture and capture #2. For 2 cable boxes you would probably use S Video and S Video_2. With my CCTV it's not really an issue as all feeds are the same and there is no channel changing, it just adds availability.

For each PVR500 in the system assuming you connect all the inputs which few actually do.

The PVR500 is sold in various packages some with the expander some without. You can buy the expanders seperately.


It appears the PVR500 is being replaced by the HVR2250 which adds HD OTA/QAM into the mix. It's a PCIe x1 card whereas the PVR500 is only available in PCI.

[paulbeers]

Just to throw my .02 worth. I have two cards that both have dual SD tuners. My PVR500 and my Avermedia 500MCE. Both use dongles (as mentioned) to allow you two hook more than one svideo/composite device to it. In fact both of my DishNetwork 311's are hooked to my Hauppauge PVR500. As also stated, the 2250 has basically replaced the PVR500 since it has two digital tuners as well as the 2 analog tuners. The downside is that older pc's without a PCIE slot are out of luck (but those of us with limited PCI slots are super happy!).