[mythtvnz] Frame buffer ver Hardware Cards

[Nick Rout]

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 8:15 AM, criggie <criggie at criggie.org.nz> wrote:
> On 05/10/11 00:00, Mallett wrote:
>>  From what I understand Hardware cards convert the video stream to MPEG-4
>> But freeveiw is already in MPEG-4 format. So is there an advantage in
>> having a hardware card
>>
>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Video_capture_card#caveats
>
> You'd be nuts to use an old framebuffer card these days.  Freeview is
> digital, so you now want a DVB  S or T card.   So even analogue is now
> relegated to reading in from a Video tape or other analogue sources.
>

Actually since digital switch-over analogue cards have paradoxically
become more important in the USA[1]. Most cable companies encrypt even
besic channels, particularly the HD versions. As a result myth users
have to hire STB's and use an analogue capture. If the want HD that
means a HD-PVR.

Luckily we have freeview for 'basic' channels, and no encryption. But
the US logic still applies to Sky.

[1] although framegrabbers are rightly deprecated.