From owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Mar 25 21:15:42 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EEC2016A480 for ; Sat, 25 Mar 2006 21:15:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tanis@gaspode.franken.de) Received: from karnickel.franken.de (karnickel.franken.de [193.141.110.11]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6EFBC43D45 for ; Sat, 25 Mar 2006 21:15:39 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from tanis@gaspode.franken.de) Received: from [193.141.104.200] (bertha.franken.de [193.141.104.200]) by karnickel.franken.de (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k2PLFWx5092875; Sat, 25 Mar 2006 22:15:32 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: <4425B2E4.6020602@gaspode.franken.de> Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 22:15:16 +0100 From: German Tischler User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5 (X11/20060218) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Nicolas Blais References: <063104E3-F7FA-4260-92F9-9A75D3B9C874@netmusician.org> <200603251533.54375.nb_root@videotron.ca> <200603251549.34278.nb_root@videotron.ca> In-Reply-To: <200603251549.34278.nb_root@videotron.ca> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.0.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Subject: Re: homemade PVR questions X-BeenThere: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Multimedia discussions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 21:15:42 -0000 Hello, Nicolas Blais wrote: > On Saturday 25 March 2006 15:41, Joe Auty wrote: >> On Mar 25, 2006, at 3:33 PM, Nicolas Blais wrote: >>> On Saturday 25 March 2006 15:07, Joe Auty wrote: >>>> Hello, >>>> >>>> >>>> I'm just getting ready to setup a PVR for myself on my FreeBSD >>>> machine, but I thought I would run by my plans with you guys first >>>> just to ensure that this will work. >>>> >>>> I have a satellite signal (Bell ExpressVu), it comes with a set-top >>>> box that inputs and outputs a coax signal. I'm looking at the >>>> Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 and using the driver for this provided in the >>>> ports tree with MythTV. >>>> >>>> Really, all I need this for is recording TV shows just like we used >>>> to use a VCR for. If I can schedule, record, save to a directory, >>>> I'll pick up this Hauppauge card. >>>> >>>> Are there minimal requirements for the video and sound cards, or is >>>> all of this handled by the Hauppauge card? Any experiences doing >>>> something similar to what I'm doing? Any general advice? >>>> >>>> >>>> Thanks! >>> Hi, what you wish to attempt is possible, here's my experience: >>> >>> I have a WinTV card and I can record with transcode (also possible >>> with >>> mencoder) but the problem is that whenever bktr (the wintv driver) >>> is opened >>> for read, the TV audio that is fed from my WinTV to my sound card thru >>> the "line in" port is heard. >>> >>> That means that I can record a show (audio/video) correctly, but at >>> the cost >>> of hearing the audio while it is recording. Obviously annoying >>> unless I turn >>> off my speakers, and I haven't found a way around (playing with >>> mixer to turn >>> down the volume obviously turns down the recorded volume too). >>> >>> Playing with the WinTV in FreeBSD is tricky, but usually one can >>> fiddle around >>> to make it work. Post your experiences in the FreeBSD-Multimedia >>> list if you >>> ever attempt your project. >> Well, I won't be using this setup to do any live recording at all, >> just recording stuff overnight on a machine that I usually just >> access over SSH. Sounds like your issue won't be an issue for me =) >> >> Do I need to have a minimal sound/video card configuration for this >> to work, or is everything handled on the card already? Would you >> recommend using transcode, mencoder, or MythTV to schedule recordings >> like I plan to do? >> > > There isn't really a minimum sound/video configuration. Also, if you're only > recording the output of the wintv and not displaying it, the video card won't > even care you're recording a show. Your sound card usually must have a > line-in port (or internal line-in). > > Like I said, I use transcode or mencoder, but never tried MythTV. I schedule > my recording using the 'at' command (see 'man at') and let cron do its stuff. > Note that the 'atrun' command which is run by cron, is set to check jobs > every 5 minutes, see /etc/crontab to change this. I wouldn't suggest getting > below 5 minutes as this could slowdown your system, but instead start and end > your recording job 5 minutes earlier and later. > > Hope this is of use to you, the original poster mentioned the PVR250 card, which is a card for hardware MPEG2 encoding, meaning it outputs MPEG2 not uncompressed data (like the Brooktree based cards). This means there is no need for a soundcard in the machine, as the audio is in the MPEG stream and does not have to be looped back into a sound card. It does also put very little load on the recording machine, unlike doing video compression in software. I am happily using a PVR350 (same chipset as the PVR250 plus MPEG decoding) for recording television. The kernel module can be installed using the multimedia/pvr250 port. As for scheduled recording, I am currently also using "at" calling a self-written program setting the correct channel and recording for a given duration. There might as well be something in the ports for doing this, but I never looked it up. Best regards German Tischler