homemade PVR questions

[Nicolas Blais]

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.

Nicolas.
-- 
FreeBSD 7.0-CURRENT #13: Sat Mar 25 09:45:35 EST 2006     
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