Will a Tv tuner accept coaxial or rca output from stb?

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bm2016

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#196414 30-May-2016 12:08

I was wondering if a tv tuner made for a pc is able to record from a coaxial or rca output on a stb in the case a direct tv box. Right now the box is connected to the tv via a coax cable. I was intending on either splitting the coax output and running one to the tv and one to the tv tuner in or using the rca/svideo output jacks on the stb and connecting those to the tuner. The pc the tuner is attached to would than be connected to the tv via hdmi. This device would practically be like a digital vcr. Is this at all possible? Any suggestions or problems?

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#1562244 30-May-2016 12:11

You will need one with an analog tuner, which is not that common now since there are no actual broadcasts to recieve.

Also it will be terrible SD quality. Better to get a component or HDMI capture device to get that from the box instead.

Richard rich.ms

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#1562310 30-May-2016 12:47

Yeah in the old days there were PCI card you could get that would capture from Aerial (old analogue signal) or capture from svideo or composite. They encoded directly to MPEG2.

At about windows 7, Microsoft made it different to load the drivers to these so they started being less popular. There amy also be some software encoding cards - which with the CPUs we have nowadays are probably fine...but I'm not aware of any.

The resolution was pretty low (576i), and the last time I used one it was for recording some old home movies that were on VHS.

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B1GGLZ

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#1562335 30-May-2016 13:27

My old (approx 8 yrs) Hauppage HVR2200 PCI Tuner card records Digital TV from a UHF antenna input (still works on Windows 10 using Next PVR) and also has composite video input for recording from external devices. I have used the Composite input for transferring old Video Tape Recordings to the PC but it's tricky to use because for some reason there's about 2 - 3 seconds delay between what goes in the input and what is seen on screen although the finished recording seem OK and are in sync. The quality is really bad though as the original analogue recordings on tape were terrible to start with. It's almost impossible to obtain PC Tuner cards these days. They seem to have been replaced with external boxes such as the HD Homerun which have a built in UHF Tuners and can be recorded by any PC or streamed to any device on the home network. Even the latest Digital Recorders don't seem to have any inputs any more to allow recording from external sources. Fortunately my trusty Panasonic (BWT720) does have composite video input which allows me to record the occasional program from my old Silver Sky Box albeit a crappy composite video signal.

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#1562337 30-May-2016 13:37

If you are ok with using the composite or svideo out from the box then you cant go past a cheap easycap video capture device. Under $10 normally so no big deal if it doesnt work.

Richard rich.ms

bm2016

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#1562724 31-May-2016 01:26

richms:
You will need one with an analog tuner, which is not that common now since there are no actual broadcasts to recieve.

Also it will be terrible SD quality. Better to get a component or HDMI capture device to get that from the box instead.

Sd quality doesn't matter as we don't have hd nor does my dad plan on getting it. We litteraly got our first hd tv(this one) a year ago today. Why analog tuner though? Why wont a digital work? what's the diffrence?

bm2016

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#1562725 31-May-2016 01:29

davidcole:
Yeah in the old days there were PCI card you could get that would capture from Aerial (old analogue signal) or capture from svideo or composite. They encoded directly to MPEG2.

At about windows 7, Microsoft made it different to load the drivers to these so they started being less popular. There amy also be some software encoding cards - which with the CPUs we have nowadays are probably fine...but I'm not aware of any.

The resolution was pretty low (576i), and the last time I used one it was for recording some old home movies that were on VHS.

I was looking at usb and pci express but I like the encoding part. I was either going to use win 7 or linux however. I don't know what the resolution out of the box is but as long as there isn't a quality loss with the tuner I'm fine.

bm2016

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#1562726 31-May-2016 01:31

richms:
If you are ok with using the composite or svideo out from the box then you cant go past a cheap easycap video capture device. Under $10 normally so no big deal if it doesnt work.

I actually was thinking about thaf but I don't know if I could set up sceduled recording with one and the qulitt may be an issue.

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bm2016

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#1562727 31-May-2016 01:34

B1GGLZ:
My old (approx 8 yrs) Hauppage HVR2200 PCI Tuner card records Digital TV from a UHF antenna input (still works on Windows 10 using Next PVR) and also has composite video input for recording from external devices. I have used the Composite input for transferring old Video Tape Recordings to the PC but it's tricky to use because for some reason there's about 2 - 3 seconds delay between what goes in the input and what is seen on screen although the finished recording seem OK and are in sync. The quality is really bad though as the original analogue recordings on tape were terrible to start with. It's almost impossible to obtain PC Tuner cards these days. They seem to have been replaced with external boxes such as the HD Homerun which have a built in UHF Tuners and can be recorded by any PC or streamed to any device on the home network. Even the latest Digital Recorders don't seem to have any inputs any more to allow recording from external sources. Fortunately my trusty Panasonic (BWT720) does have composite video input which allows me to record the occasional program from my old Silver Sky Box albeit a crappy composite video signal.

The delay wouldn't affect me as we most likely wouldn't watch and record it at the same time. Quality is an issue and I would also maybe use this to convert our abundance of vhs into digital. I also saw the HD Homerun but my internet sucks. I know it would use the local network but my router is crap and still is slow with local devices. Also I haven't seen one with an av input only coax

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#1562785 31-May-2016 09:15

bm2016:
richms:
You will need one with an analog tuner, which is not that common now since there are no actual broadcasts to recieve.

Also it will be terrible SD quality. Better to get a component or HDMI capture device to get that from the box instead.

Sd quality doesn't matter as we don't have hd nor does my dad plan on getting it. We litteraly got our first hd tv(this one) a year ago today. Why analog tuner though? Why wont a digital work? what's the diffrence?

Because the outputs from the box are SD analog video. Digital tuners only receive digital signals which were encoded by the broadcaster. They have no encoder of their own or ability to use a software encoder..

Richard rich.ms

richms

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#1562788 31-May-2016 09:18

bm2016:
richms:
If you are ok with using the composite or svideo out from the box then you cant go past a cheap easycap video capture device. Under $10 normally so no big deal if it doesnt work.
I actually was thinking about thaf but I don't know if I could set up sceduled recording with one and the qulitt may be an issue.

Quality is SD so fine if you're OK with that.

Not sure on the ability to schedule recordings with supplied software as I only use mine to get video capture from retro gaming consoles into streaming software. There is plenty of other PVR software around that does. You still will not have a way to change the channel on the receiver box tho.

Richard rich.ms

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#1562797 31-May-2016 09:31

richms:
bm2016:
richms:

If you are ok with using the composite or svideo out from the box then you cant go past a cheap easycap video capture device. Under $10 normally so no big deal if it doesnt work.

I actually was thinking about thaf but I don't know if I could set up sceduled recording with one and the qulitt may be an issue.

Quality is SD so fine if you're OK with that.

Not sure on the ability to schedule recordings with supplied software as I only use mine to get video capture from retro gaming consoles into streaming software. There is plenty of other PVR software around that does. You still will not have a way to change the channel on the receiver box tho.

You have to use an IR Blaster to change the channel. I used to to it to a Sky decoder and to an old TelstraClear STB about 10 years ago.

I bought one of these: http://www.usbuirt.com/ and it did it for me. There's probably easier ways now days.

B1GGLZ

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#1562808 31-May-2016 09:43

bm2016:
Quality is an issue and I would also maybe use this to convert our abundance of vhs into digital.

If you want to convert old VHS content to digital then I'd suggest keep a watch on Trademe for an older DVD recorder that has a built-in HDD and external A/V inputs. I sold my old ones on Trademe a couple of years ago. An old Analogue Tuner DVD HDD Recorder would do the job and you should get one for well under $100. An older Panasonic BluRay Recorder with A/V inputs won't be much more. Windows 10 recognizes my Panasonic BluRay Recorder on my network and I can just drag and drop recordings for editing.

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#1562809 31-May-2016 09:46

OP is in US.

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bm2016

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#1562849 31-May-2016 10:22

richms:
bm2016:
richms:
If you are ok with using the composite or svideo out from the box then you cant go past a cheap easycap video capture device. Under $10 normally so no big deal if it doesnt work.
I actually was thinking about thaf but I don't know if I could set up sceduled recording with one and the qulitt may be an issue.

Quality is SD so fine if you're OK with that.

Not sure on the ability to schedule recordings with supplied software as I only use mine to get video capture from retro gaming consoles into streaming software. There is plenty of other PVR software around that does. You still will not have a way to change the channel on the receiver box tho.

Sceduling recordings is a major must have. Changing the channel isn't a problem as we wont watch live tv through this only for the recroding. Its a simple stb so no watching and recording or anything. Noone can use the tv while recording but its the same as now. No biggie

bm2016

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#1562851 31-May-2016 10:26

richms:
bm2016:
richms:
You will need one with an analog tuner, which is not that common now since there are no actual broadcasts to recieve.

Also it will be terrible SD quality. Better to get a component or HDMI capture device to get that from the box instead.

Sd quality doesn't matter as we don't have hd nor does my dad plan on getting it. We litteraly got our first hd tv(this one) a year ago today. Why analog tuner though? Why wont a digital work? what's the diffrence?

Because the outputs from the box are SD analog video. Digital tuners only receive digital signals which were encoded by the broadcaster. They have no encoder of their own or ability to use a software encoder..

Okay thanks. So if I had say cable that didn't require a box that would be digital. What would an old antenna for uhf and vhf be? Would that also be analog?

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