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Recording satellite TV at minimal cost

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foreword

So, it's done! Forgotten interference, noise, loss of color and other "horrors" broadcasting. I joined the group of happy owners of satellite (DVB-S) television, fortunately, ready-made sets of "NTV +" and "Tricolor" are sold on every corner. Those. it is assumed that the user is able to install and configure everything himself. In general, this is how it turned out.

At first, beside myself with joy, I just switched channels and did not believe my eyes. All channels showed equally well. When the moments of euphoria disappeared, I thought about how I could watch those programs that are going on in my absence. A solution was needed to record satellite broadcasts. With the results of my research, I want to acquaint the readers of this article.

My first thought was - to replace the receiver with another, writing. But after a short search on the Internet, it turned out that this is quite an expensive pleasure. You need to buy a receiver, a cam module for it, the cost of which is not inferior to the cost of the receiver. I did not like this decision, since the total cost was from 8 to 20 thousand rubles. But do not return to the stone, i.e. analog age! This is again analog noise, interference, chewed tape and the lack of a quick search for the desired section of the recording.

The second option is to buy a DVD recorder. I get the opportunity to record my favorite shows on the hard drive built into the recorder or straight to DVD. But even here I was disappointed. The cheapest recorders cost from 6 thousand rubles, and with small capacity disks, which clearly did not fit into my budget.

The third option is to buy a computer DVB-S tuner with which you can record programs. This option also had to be discarded for a number of reasons. Firstly, such tuners are not very common. Therefore, there is no normal software and technical support. the software is not localized, and you will have to search and configure it at your own peril and risk. Only very experienced users who love experiments can recommend such a solution. Secondly, do not forget that in order to legally view closed channels on a computer, the tuner must have a CI slot for installing a CAM module under the access card of a specific broadcast operator. There are no such solutions on the Russian market yet. But even if they appear, their cost is likely to be in the range of 7 to 13 thousand rubles, depending on the cost of the CAM module. Those. such a solution also does not fall under the definition of "minimum costs".

The solution came when I looked around my room and saw a computer in the corner winking gleefully at me with its light bulbs. Why not get him to work anyway? Moreover, an ordinary analog TV tuner, costing from 2 to 4 thousand rubles, is also suitable for recording broadcasts from a satellite. Moreover, the last figure refers to the latest models with hardware MPEG compression and noise reduction. It remains only to choose the right interface and decide how "fancy" the TV tuner and software for it should be.

TV tuner or video capture card?

Theoretically, you can limit yourself to an inexpensive video capture card, although the difference in price is not so significant. At the same time, you lose some additional features provided by TV tuners: reception of analog and digital television and radio channels, remote control, more functional software that comes with the tuner, and so on. Since we are talking about recording programs, you should not deprive yourself of additional bonuses.

Among other things, with the help of a video capture card, we can only record programs when we are near the computer, or you have to keep the computer on all day.

If we use a TV tuner, then, thanks to the task scheduler, the recording can be configured so that the computer itself turns on at the right time, records the transmission and turns off. Additionally, on TV tuners, you can use such an important function as delayed viewing, which greatly expands the viewing experience. Without interrupting the recording, we have the ability to move to any place in the recording and view any section repeatedly, both in slow and fast mode. You lose all this if you make a choice in favor of a video capture card, while practically not winning in price.

What you need to know about TV tuners

A TV tuner is a device that allows you to receive TV and radio programs and view them through software on your computer. This is the main task of TV tuners. In addition, they also allow you to solve tasks such as:

• capturing individual frames, for example, so that they can then be printed on a printer;
• watching and recording TV and radio programs (including scheduled recording in your absence);
• digitization of analog audio and video recordings;
• security functions;
• delayed viewing with the possibility of fast and slow playback;
• network broadcasting;
• and much more.

The presence of certain functions almost completely falls on the "shoulders" of the software. Therefore, his choice should be taken as responsibly as the choice of the TV tuner itself.

Tuners are divided into internal and external. Internal models are installed inside the system unit, external ones remain outside. To connect external TV tuners, you do not need to turn off the computer and open its case. These are more versatile devices, but their price is (usually) higher than domestic ones.

Deciding on the TV tuner interface

If you are very computer savvy, you can skip this chapter. For those who stayed, it will be interesting to know that the choice of interface must be approached as deliberately as possible and well aware of the consequences of a rash choice. One of these consequences will be the complete incompatibility of the TV tuner and the computer. To prevent this from happening, we begin to understand the intricacies.

Interfaces for TV tuners are as follows: PCI, PCI-E and USB. We will not touch on specialized "notebook" interfaces (PCMCIA and ExpressCard) due to low versatility, narrow application and, as a rule, higher prices.

PCI and PCI-E interfaces are suitable for internal models of tuners, USB - for external ones.

Which one is preferable? The question is wrong! The correct question would be: "On which interface do I need to buy a TV tuner in order for it to fit my computer?" To get an answer, it is advisable to open the cover of the system unit and look at the motherboard (the main board in the computer). She may look different.

For example, like this (3 PCI-E slots and 3 PCI):

Or like this (4 PCI-E slots and 2 PCI):

Looking at the motherboard is useful for many reasons. For example, to determine whether it is possible to install a TV tuner inside the system unit at all. Perhaps all the seats are already taken.

So, we looked at the motherboard and saw several free slots of different sizes. What do they mean?

PCI interface

One of the most common today, for which all kinds of devices are still produced. However, more modern motherboards are starting to significantly reduce the number of PCI slots in favor of more modern PCI-E. It is unlikely that motherboard manufacturers will completely abandon PCI slots in the near future, since there are still too many devices on this interface, and their PCI-E counterparts are still few.

The motherboard usually has 1 to 5 PCI slots, but sometimes there can be more. As a rule, PCI slots are made of white plastic, as in the photo below, although there are exceptions.

It is important to look at the number of PCI slots in advance and how many of them you currently have free. For example, this motherboard has only 2 PCI slots:

One of the PCI slots on such a motherboard may be occupied by another device. If so, then you should seriously consider whether to buy an internal model of a TV tuner.

If there are a lot of PCI slots and many of them are free, we can advise you to buy a TV tuner on this interface. Accordingly, such a slot requires a TV tuner with a PCI interface. It looks like this:

PCI-E interface

This is a more modern and faster interface. Unlike PCI, which used a common bus for data transfer, PCI-E (PCI-Express), in general, is a packet network with a star topology. PCI-Express devices communicate with each other through a medium formed by switches. In this case, each device is directly connected by a point-to-point connection to the switch. Thus, the load is distributed more evenly across multiple devices.

PCI-E slots are different. The differences are in the size of the slots and in the data transfer rate.

Fortunately, computer TV tuners are still available in PCI-E x1, so they can be installed not only in the corresponding slot, but also in any other PCI-E slot. This modern interface provides such an opportunity.

Some motherboard manufacturers, in pursuit of design, forget about users and paint all the slots in one color. An example is in the next photo. Your motherboard may also be like this, so I will decipher what you can see in the picture (from bottom to top): PCI, PCI-E x16, PCI-E 1x, PCI-E x16 and PCI-E 4x.

Unfortunately, motherboard developers do not take into account that modern video cards are quite "fat" and take up much more space in width than before. Therefore, installing a PCI-E tuner in the third or even in the second slot (from bottom to top) will no longer work. It all depends on the actual size of the video card. It is equally important that the TV tuner does not block the input stream to cool the video card or blow hot air from it.

It turns out that in this case it is really possible to install a TV tuner only in the farthest PCI-E slot.

The PCI-E interface on a computer TV tuner looks like this:

USB interface

The most versatile in terms of connection. Devices on this interface can be used with both a laptop and a desktop computer. The connection itself can be made without turning off the power of the computer. It also adds versatility.

The only drawback is that other USB devices connected to the same USB controller can slow down the performance of the tuner, since shared resources are shared between the devices. For example, the operation of an external hard drive on a USB interface can significantly reduce the data transfer rate from a TV tuner, which is fraught with a corrupted image and other troubles. Therefore, if you plan to work with an external USB HDD, do not start copying large amounts of information while working with a TV tuner. And it is better to spread the HDD and TV tuner to different USB controllers.

The USB connector looks like this:

We determine the manufacturer and the main functions of the TV tuner

As part of this article, I will focus on GoTView products due to the combination of a number of advantages:

• The model range of TV tuners of this company is represented by interfaces: PCI, PCI-E and USB. For each interface, there are both conventional tuners and those with hardware MPEG compression. Moreover, for the latter, recording is not limited to MPEG-2 format and only by hardware. No one forbids recording using any other codecs, which greatly expands the capabilities of TV tuners.
• For each interface there are also hybrid TV tuners supporting both analogue and digital (DVB-T) broadcasting. This will be an additional bonus in regions where digital broadcasting has already begun. Digital channels can not only be watched, but also recorded using the supplied software.
• The software allows full use of any codec.
• Processing by external filters is supported when recording and viewing both video and sound.
• Apart from normal recording, GoTView software allows you to record video only, audio only, or audio and video to separate files. This can be useful for video editing and DVD authoring.
• The developers have implemented a convenient and visual task scheduler.

All GoTView tuners have 10-bit ADC decoders, so they will digitize video equally well. Further processing of video and sound, depending on the model, is handled either by the central processing unit of the computer or by a special chipset installed in the TV tuner.

It is important to decide whether we need hardware MPEG compression, because TV tuners with hardware compression are noticeably more expensive than conventional ones. Think about whether you plan to work at the computer while recording programs. If so, then hardware MPEG compression is highly desirable. There is no special need for it if the computer will be used only for recording and its performance is not lower than P-IV 2 GHz.

Author: Kirill Ivanov; Publication: pctuner.ru

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