HDTV PC Tuner Cards

[David Findlay]

Which of the currently available HDTV tuner cards have onboard MPEG2
decoding? I have an Athlon 1ghz machine which I'd like to be able to use as
a DVR or to watch the video on my computer fullscreen. Would it be possible
to store the MPEG2 stream directly to hard drive? How much space would that
use per hour? Thanks,

David

[Simon Howson]

"David Findlay" <david@davsoft.com.au> wrote in message
news:4020c732$0$1744$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.a u...
> Which of the currently available HDTV tuner cards have onboard MPEG2
> decoding? I have an Athlon 1ghz machine which I'd like to be able to use
as
> a DVR or to watch the video on my computer fullscreen. Would it be
possible
> to store the MPEG2 stream directly to hard drive? How much space would
that
> use per hour? Thanks,
>
> David

None that I know of. I am hoping it is a feature on cards that get released
later in the year which is probably the one reason I am waiting. You may as
well just upgrade to an Athlon XP considering they are so cheap now.

Simon Howson

[Radioactive Man]

Hi,

This won't happen as with DXVA graphics cards are assumed by many of the
manufacturers as being able to offer enough hardware decoding assistance!
The latest graphics cards anyway.

--
Kind Regards
Digivision HTPC Support
"Simon Howson" <simonhowson@NOSPAMyahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:4N7Ub.42452$Wa.33806@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>
> "David Findlay" <david@davsoft.com.au> wrote in message
> news:4020c732$0$1744$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.a u...
> > Which of the currently available HDTV tuner cards have onboard MPEG2
> > decoding? I have an Athlon 1ghz machine which I'd like to be able to use
> as
> > a DVR or to watch the video on my computer fullscreen. Would it be
> possible
> > to store the MPEG2 stream directly to hard drive? How much space would
> that
> > use per hour? Thanks,
> >
> > David
>
> None that I know of. I am hoping it is a feature on cards that get
released
> later in the year which is probably the one reason I am waiting. You may
as
> well just upgrade to an Athlon XP considering they are so cheap now.
>
> Simon Howson
>
>

[Mike]

David Findlay wrote:
> Which of the currently available HDTV tuner cards have onboard MPEG2

None, and it would be more approprite to have that on the video card
(vga). Also, there is no hardware difference between SD and HD
reception. All cards do HD.

> decoding? I have an Athlon 1ghz machine which I'd like to be able to use as

Thats plenty. But you will need a faster machine for HDTV playback.

> a DVR or to watch the video on my computer fullscreen. Would it be possible
> to store the MPEG2 stream directly to hard drive? How much space would that
> use per hour? Thanks,

Yes. I think its around 7Mb/s, so 3GB/hr. Its similar to a DVD.
HD streams I've seen here are not much more :-(

> David

[Peter Collins]

Hi RadMan
Can you give some examples of such video cards?
What is DXVA?

TIA Peter

"Radioactive Man" <rm@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:40218192$1@news.comindico.com.au...
> Hi,
>
> This won't happen as with DXVA graphics cards are assumed by many of the
> manufacturers as being able to offer enough hardware decoding assistance!
> The latest graphics cards anyway.
>
> --
> Kind Regards
> Digivision HTPC Support
> "Simon Howson" <simonhowson@NOSPAMyahoo.com.au> wrote in message
> news:4N7Ub.42452$Wa.33806@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> >
> > "David Findlay" <david@davsoft.com.au> wrote in message
> > news:4020c732$0$1744$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.a u...
> > > Which of the currently available HDTV tuner cards have onboard MPEG2
> > > decoding? I have an Athlon 1ghz machine which I'd like to be able to
use
> > as
> > > a DVR or to watch the video on my computer fullscreen. Would it be
> > possible
> > > to store the MPEG2 stream directly to hard drive? How much space would
> > that
> > > use per hour? Thanks,
> > >
> > > David
> >
> > None that I know of. I am hoping it is a feature on cards that get
> released
> > later in the year which is probably the one reason I am waiting. You may
> as
> > well just upgrade to an Athlon XP considering they are so cheap now.
> >
> > Simon Howson
> >
> >
>
>

[Louis Solomon [SteelBytes]]

> What is DXVA?

DirectX Video Acceleration
http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/directx9_c/directx/htm/aboutdirectxvideoacceleration.asp

--
Louis Solomon
www.steelbytes.com



--
Louis Solomon
www.steelbytes.com

"Peter Collins" <peterco@alphalink.com.au> wrote in message news:40222c43@news.alphalink.com.au...
> Hi RadMan
> Can you give some examples of such video cards?
> What is DXVA?
>
> TIA Peter
>
> "Radioactive Man" <rm@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
> news:40218192$1@news.comindico.com.au...
>> Hi,
>>
>> This won't happen as with DXVA graphics cards are assumed by many of the
>> manufacturers as being able to offer enough hardware decoding assistance!
>> The latest graphics cards anyway.
>>
>> --
>> Kind Regards
>> Digivision HTPC Support
>> "Simon Howson" <simonhowson@NOSPAMyahoo.com.au> wrote in message
>> news:4N7Ub.42452$Wa.33806@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>> >
>> > "David Findlay" <david@davsoft.com.au> wrote in message
>> > news:4020c732$0$1744$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.a u...
>> > > Which of the currently available HDTV tuner cards have onboard MPEG2
>> > > decoding? I have an Athlon 1ghz machine which I'd like to be able to
> use
>> > as
>> > > a DVR or to watch the video on my computer fullscreen. Would it be
>> > possible
>> > > to store the MPEG2 stream directly to hard drive? How much space would
>> > that
>> > > use per hour? Thanks,
>> > >
>> > > David
>> >
>> > None that I know of. I am hoping it is a feature on cards that get
>> released
>> > later in the year which is probably the one reason I am waiting. You may
>> as
>> > well just upgrade to an Athlon XP considering they are so cheap now.
>> >
>> > Simon Howson
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>

[Louis Solomon [SteelBytes]]

sorry, hadn't finished editing ...


> What is DXVA?

DirectX Video Acceleration

http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/directx9_c/directx/htm/aboutdirectxvideoacceleration.asp

in short, DirectX Video Acceleration is all about hardware mpeg video decoders.


--
Louis Solomon
www.steelbytes.com

[The General]

"David Findlay" <david@davsoft.com.au> wrote in message
news:4020c732$0$1744$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.a u...
> Which of the currently available HDTV tuner cards have onboard MPEG2
> decoding? I have an Athlon 1ghz machine which I'd like to be able to use
as
> a DVR or to watch the video on my computer fullscreen. Would it be
possible
> to store the MPEG2 stream directly to hard drive? How much space would
that
> use per hour? Thanks,
>
> David

I'm almost positive that the Nebula card stores the MPEG2 stream directly to
the hard drive.