Capturing transport stream with a TV-card in PC

[DennisOlof]

First post for me here.

From what I understand so far, the important thing when capturing a feed, is to get the raw .ts file (transport stream) intact (and unencrypted for pay-tv).

Was thinking of using a set-top-box but they are way more expensive, and it seems that most of them don't do TRUE capture of the "transport stream". Or capture it untouched.

Is a card for a PC a good way to capture "transport streams" intact ?

Can all cards, wintv, terratec and so on capture to .ts intact (untouched) ?

Or what cards should I get for my PC, which is good (oh and it needs to be able to use a CI (and a CAM so I can use my pay-TV card with it).

[kalehrl]

Most linux-based satellite receivers do capture raw ts files and they are not very expensive.
You can buy them for around 150-200 euros.
Search for dreambox, VU, Xtrend satellite receivers.
I've got Xtrend et6000 and it records ts just fine as well as dreambox 500+ which is not HD.
They also have card readers and with softcams, they can read your card.
They've got ethernet ports and support for internal hard drives or at least USB ports for attaching USB hard drives.

[DennisOlof]

kalehrl, Yeah I can get help from another forum when it comes to softcams, images for dreambox and all that. It was just that they where expencive, compare to getting a card for a pc, as I have several of them. But I am unsure if there are cards for PC that can capture the raw transport stream. So the question is then, is there a cheap linux-based box to record sdtv, hdtv. It dose not need to support harddrive etc, recording to usb memory or external harddrive is fine for me, as long and the digitalbox it self is cheap. The xtrend et6000 don't look to bad, at least way cheaper than dreambox and does HD, about 230 euros over here.

Still interested though, if TV-cards do capture the raw .ts stream of if they don't.

[frankio]

Most DVB card can capture full (raw) TS with the only exception being old USB 1.1 devices, because of USB bus bandwidth limitation.
Other exceptions are cards with hardware PID filtering, but they are pretty rare nowadays.

You can check LinuxTV wiki to be 100% sure, though is a bit outdated.

Once you have a full TS capable hardware, you need the right software to dump the TS to a file, that is not a problem on Linux (if the card is properly supported) but may be a problem on Windows.

[DennisOlof]

Ok. So in general, all modern TV-cards for computers do record the "raw .ts file" or at least save the .ts file with the information you set it to, if there are multiple sound streams and so on. But it is still untouched. So a dreambox, can save the TV-channel program, unencrypted to a .ts file. Or a semi-touched .ts file with the right video stream, sound stream etc.

Reason I want it untouched, as much as possible, is the option to transfer .ts file to computer and to use Megui, then cut, crop etc with avisynth script, and finaly re-encode to 720p x264 .mkv file. For me to save it or do whatever I like with the file. Is the dreambox a good option in that regard or do people use TV-cards for computers (with a card + CAM) for it to save programs etc.

I guess reception and stability compared to a computer is way better on a dreambox

[Darksoul71]

Since I have become a DVB-S / -S2 recording guy, I want to add my 2 cents also... :)

I guess reception and stability compared to a computer is way better on a dreambox
No, overall both reception and stability of a PC is similar to a DVB-S receiver. I recorded DVB-T over a year using my AMD E-350-based Linux box without stability issues. When it comes to stability, you should keep in mind that most (if not all) modern devices to some extent are computers with operating system. So even a STB can hang or have a "blue screen".

Both concepts have their strenghts and weaknesses.

A PC (given you use a decent software) provides a much smoother user experience than the average STB does but consumes a lot of power. Also DVB-S2 devices are much more expensive than an average STB. This is even more true for a PC solution with CAM.

For the main purpose of recording I would grab a reasonable cheap STB with CAM (if required). Both solutions (PC plus card or STB) will most likely keep the sat streams untouched. The only thing you might find is the conversion to TS / M2TS container.

I would look out for a cheap DVB-S2 STB with CAM.

HTH,
D$

[kalehrl]

So a dreambox, can save the TV-channel program, unencrypted to a .ts file.
Yes, provided it is able to decode the signal in the first place i.e. to receive CW from the card or elsewhere. :)