thelinuxlink.net

Besides OTA (over the air) you can currently capture HD content from HD cable boxes via firewire. There is an FCC law requiring cable companies provide working firewire connections on their boxes. Most cable channels can be captured via firewire transport streams but the cable companies tend to block the premium movie channels(HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc..). Mileage will vary depending on your cable provider. The state of HD capture with satellite boxes is much worse. Satellite companies are not bound by the above mentioned FCC law. There is a company that will either install a working firewire port on your satellite box or sell you a do it yourself kit for a lot of money:
http://169time.com/index.html#complist

Another solution is coming soon from Hauppauge. They will soon be releasing this device that will capture HD content via the component out connections on either cable or satellite receivers:
http://www.hauppauge.com/pdfs/Hauppauge_HD_recorder.pdf

Word is that they're working with the Linux community to insure compatibility with MythTV and other DVR software. The device will initially sell for $249. Much cheaper than the above mentioned satellite box modification.

For HD over OTA I currently use the HDHomeRun from http://www.silicondust.com/. I like it because it has two tuners and connects to your network for any PC's on your network to access. I keep mine down in the unfinished area of the basement where my switch is for all the network lines running through the house.

Works great with MythTV and other PVR software for various platforms. Or you can just use VLC to watch streams live from it. Has a pretty simple API interface so you could code up a simple PVR also if you didn't like the other options. Two antenna inputs on it so you can record two shows at once. You can feed an OTA antenna to both inputs, or cable to both, or do a mixed cable/OTA setup if you wish also.

I would LOVE to see Silicondust make a device like the HDHomeRun that accepted Component or HDMI input and had a network port so computers on the network could watch the component/hdmi signal on the PC and record it. For me this would be ideal because I don't have a PC near my set top boxes that are in various rooms of the house. Would be nice to just connect a HDHomeRun like box to the component output of the HD DVR and then be able to record with one of my PC's.

Hauppauge HD component out capture to be slightly delayed:
http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2008/03/ ... eo_29.html

If I can record any HD channel I'll probably pick this up when it's released. Some background on the device:
http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2008/03/ ... video.html

It's being released at the end of May:
http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2008/04/ ... hotos.html

God bless the analog hole!

Thank you Hauppauge.

It will sell on May 1, 2008. They're taking pre-orders now:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/hd_pvr.html

Personally I'm going to wait a bit to get feedback from the MythTV community before purchasing it. This device makes a nice migration path to HD capture. The biggest plus is that it works with ANY set top box with component out connections.

The Hauppauge HD-PVR 1212 has finally shipped albeit a couple weeks late:
http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2008/05/ ... d-pvr.html

No reports from the field yet. Supposedly the Linux driver is already written. Once it's been confirmed to working in MythTV I'll probably pick one up.

Good review of HD-PVR 1212:
http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2008/06/ ... d-and.html

So it sounds like the device encodes very good quality HD video. That's the good news. We're still waiting on Linux support and MythTV. There's now an entry for it on the MythTV wiki:
http://mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_HD-PVR

Patrick wrote: So it sounds like the device encodes very good quality HD video. That's the good news. We're still waiting on Linux support and MythTV. There's now an entry for it on the MythTV wiki:
http://mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_HD-PVR

The first alpha driver has been released. Good news!