HD Capture Card

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HD cards capture the bitstream exactly as it is sent TO your STB/TV. That bitstream is a compressed MPEG-2 "file" that may or may not be encrypted (scrambled).


Unencrypted (not scrambled) streams (OTA, some digital cable usually just local channels) can be viewed fine and will have quality exactly the same as your STB, since it's the same transmission.


There is no way to decrypt (unscramble) encrypted streams on a PC.


Your cable box outputs a "stream" that is both unencrypted (unscrambled) and decoded (uncompressed). There is no cost effective way to deal with the massive datarate of uncompressed HD.

i found this card, but i can't find any info on it. i did a search in the avsforums, and didn't turn up anything. are all the cards (Fusion, etc.) basically the same?

http://www.hdtvauthority.com/hipix_1.htm


"Your cable box outputs a "stream" that is both unencrypted (unscrambled) and decoded (uncompressed). There is no cost effective way to deal with the massive datarate of uncompressed HD."


so does this mean that an HD Capture card will display the HD video from the STB, but it can't record it? or, are you saying that the only way to record HD TV is from a feed from a cable STB?


thanks.

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The hipix card is old, and I'm surprised it would be available still...I think that is just an old webpage.
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you'd have to search the archieves now .... although there would be info on it in the "buyers guide thread" that has been on the first page of the forum the last couple of days. Note that the buyers guide is now quite dated. Anyways, the Hipix is/was a hardware decoding card.
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There are two classes of cards: hardware decoding and software decoding. Within their respective classes, the cards tend to be very similar hardware wise. Even between the two classes, there aren't striking differneces between the on board componentry. Software support on the other hand can vary greatly between cards, even in the case where they are essentially the same physical product.

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No. A hdtv card is expecting to receive a signal that is both modulated RF and compressed. What comes out of your stb is a demodulated and uncompressed (decoded) signal. You can't fit square blocks into round holes in this case...even if you pull out the mallet


You can however, send the down res'ed analog signal from the set top box out via s-video to a capture card.


You can also, in some cases, use firewire out from the stb to send the undecoded transport stream to a firewire card in your computer. This will preserve the hdtv signal/content. However, copy protection issues still apply. See one of the firewire capturing threads for detail.