Video Capture

[nki69c]

I want to record HDTV onto my computer and then possibly burn it to DVD. I don't really know how to go about doing this as the only options that I have seen are buying one of the HDTV cards like ATI's but that only allows you to capture HD that is broadcast over the air. I want to capture HDTV off of the satelite feed that i am getting. Is this possible by simply getting an ATI AIW and hooking things together or do I need to do more? Thx

[Aedan]

I'm not well up on HDTV in the US, but my understanding is...

The ATI HDTV card can only handle terrestrial broadcast of digital signals. If you want to use it to capture signals from another source, then you're back down to standard TV resolution.

To receive HDTV from satellite, you'll need a satellite card. Most digital satellite broadcasts are done in MPEG2, which could be directly captured retaining the quality. However, things like access control may make things more complex. I don't know how this is handled in the US I'm afraid.

Also, be aware that the bitrates for HDTV are pretty darn high, and you'll be limited to how much you can fit on a DVD, especially if it's a single layer DVD. For European HDTV, you need approximately 10GByte of storage per hour of HDTV.

[cadaveca]

5380 kbs looks ok...
try window media encoder for the capture.
i do not have HDTV myself, but recording from any live source has not been difficult.

[Aedan]

That's good, but you have to be able to get HDTV into the system first. I'm not aware of any capture cards that can handle anything but standard resolution TV!

[cadaveca]

get a proper video editing board, and it'll go to the pc via ethernet, with software, of course.

[Aedan]

Can you recommend any that can handle HDTV?

[cadaveca]

i know that the stuff i have will do it, but i have to go check. It's either a sony or panasonic that records to HD cassettes. Got the HD cameras as well. Just went through a big move of the studio, so it's still boxed, but i'll snap some pics and post 'em in the next few days.