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HDTV Video Technology

HDTV PC Capture Solutions?
With HDTV DVR's costing upwards of a thousand US dollars or more, I was looking for a HiDef capture card that would work with Linux and an external HD receiver. The pchdtv card looks nice but it's RF input only for HiDef content, and only supports OTA at this point. Both DirecTV and DishNetwork HD STBs can be hacked with FireWire ports, but it's not cheap, so I was trying to find a capture card with either DVI or Component inputs, or a converter to take either of those to FireWire. The old Dish Network model 5000 receivers had an option to output HDTV RF but they are no longer compatible with Dish's current HDTV broadcasts. Google has not been helpful in this regard, and all I've found is professional (>$2000US) format conversion gear. Is there a PC (hopefully Linux) based video capture solution that can capture the output of a cable of DBS STB (RGBA, DVI, or Component out) without a significant loss of image fidelity?

Thread on Slashdot.org
pcHDTV - for Linux

Microsoft Windows XP - Media Center Edition 2005
Per CNET: "With Media Center Edition 2005, Microsoft is dipping its toe into the world of digital television. For systems in the United States, Microsoft is supporting recording high-definition TV, but only for free, antenna-based signals. Poole said the reason is that cable and satellite providers have not yet provided access to their high-definition signals." Although only OTA, Microsoft has been very vocal about the new MCE 2005 supporting HDTV. Similar to one of the recorders in the review that only supports OTA HDTV, so does MCE 2005. You might be confused with MCE 2004, which did not.

Windows Media Center 2005: third time's (almost) the charm ZDNet

HDTV PVR Recorders Cards and PC add-on's
pchdtv.com HD-2000 / HD-3000 cards + MythTV, on Linux
MyHD MDP-120. HD tuner card with hardware MPEG2 decoder
AccessHDTV, HiPix, OnAir DTV Pro
Dvico FusionHDTV. HD Tuner card, MPEG decoding done in software..
ATI HDTV Wonder
ElGato EyeTV 500. MacOS X HDTV solution. Firewire based device, uses software MPEG decoding
Sasem OnAir USB HDTV. supported on Windows only, connects via USB 2.0 port.

HDTV PVR Recorders
G4 review of 3 consumer HDTV PVR Recorders

Zenith's HDR230(first HD DVR out) 8 Hrs,
LG LST-3410A 12.5 Hrs.,
DishNetwork 921 25 Hrs,
DirecTV HD 10-250 30 Hrs. ,
Motorola 6208
Sony , DHG-HDD200 (25 Hrs), DHG-HDD500 (500GB, 60 Hr of HD) and DHG-HDD250 , Clip-On SVR-715 this last one I'm not sure if this is HD or not.
Scientific Atlanta 8000 and 8300 HiDef DVR
Hughes HR10-250 , Can output to non-HDCP-compliant sets. even comes with a HDMI-to-DVI cable in the box
Nextcom R5000-HD, for Dish Network, DirecTV, Bell ExpressVu and ATSC Digital Television (DTV). included an HD Modulator. Window XP / 2000 based HDTV recording system installed in your set top box (STB) and connected to your PC via USB 2.0. Recorded programs are archived directly to the PC hard drive.

  DishNetwork 921 DirecTV HD 10-250 LG LST-3410A Zenith HDR230
Price $999 $999 $999 $999
Supported Formats 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i
Tuners 8-VBS ATSC/NTSC tuner and dual DishNetwork connectors 8-VBS ATSC/NTSC tuner and dual DirecTV connectors 8-VBS ATSC/NTSC tuner. No HD cable card 8-VBS ATSC/NTSC tuner. No HD cable card
HD recording time 25 hours 30 hours 12.5 hours 8 hours
SD recording time 180 hours 200 hours 62.5 hours 27 hours
Monthly service $9.99, first six months free $10.99, first six months free plus $4.99 for TiVo Free Free

Playback of HD Video
Once video is recording into standard, ISO 13818-1 MPEG-2 transport streams there are several products that can play it back.

MyHD, Roku, JVC 30000, JVC 40000,

Misc Notes I need to expand upon later
[1394ta.org] FireWire, 1394 Trade Association
MPEG-2 Program Stream output for MP@ML , HiPix , D-VHS, DVHSTool , HDMI or Component (YPbPr) high-definition outputs
AV Science Forum AVS Forum > HDTV > HDTV Recorders

HDMI™ technology with HDCP (High Definition Multimedia Interface with High Definition Copy Protection) technology, which is the latest interconnect between digital sources, supporting both uncompressed high definition video and multi-channel digital audio through a single cable. HDMI is an enhanced version of DVI-HDTV and is backward compatible;

HDTV on VHS , AKA D-VHS
Did you know there are now HDTV VHS Tape players with content starting to come out. It's know as D-VHS or HD-VHS

high definition HD-VHS players sell for around $550 to $1300.


JVC (www.jvc.com)
HM-DR1
HM-DR10000
HM-DH30000 D-VHS
HM-DH40000 D-VHS Digital HDTV Recorder
HM-5U

Mitsubishi (www.mitsubishitv.com)
HV-HD1000
HS-HD1100U D-VHS/S-VHS VCR
HS-HD2000U D-VHS/VHS VCR

Panasonic (www.panasonic.com)
PV-HD1000
NV-DH1, Never made it out of Japan
NV-DH2
NV-DHE10, Never made it out of Japan
NV-DHE20
AJ-HD2000 - D-5 tapes
AJ-HD2700 - D-5 tapes
AJ-HD3700 - D-5 tapes

Sony (www.sonystyle.com)
HDD1000 - HDTV 1 inch Recorder
HDWM2000/1 - Digital Betacam Betacam/SP Betacam
DHR-1000
DSR-1500A VTR
DSR-2000p PAL DVCAM VTR

Hitachi
DT-DR20000
DT-DR5000

The HDTV tapes will not work with analog VCRs or analog TVs.

Yahoo sells HD-VHS Tapes from HDNet's HDTV Content

Misc HDTV Gadgets used for Digital Cinema at the ETC Center

below are some of my notes.
August 2004

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DTS XD10 Cinema Media Player
http://www.dtsonline.com/cinema/products.php?ID=1929230003
The DTS XD10 Cinema Media Player is engineered to deliver 10 channels of the highest quality digital surround sound, plus enhanced video for alternate media. The unit contains an internal hard drive capable of storing up to 30 feature film soundtracks.

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http://www.evs-cinema.com/news37.asp
EVS - CineStore Solo server
http://www.evs-global.com/mainus/products/cinemaservers.php
All CineStore servers are currently using MPEG-2 image compression, based on the standard format Main Profile at High Level (MP@HL).
http://www.evs-cinema.com/solo.pdf

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http://www.microspace.com
http://www.microspace.com/news/UPLINK2003May.pdf

(THESE ARE THE SAME PHONE NUMBER AS MICROSPACE)
http://www.dtvplus.com/index.html
DTV Plus
2619 Western Blvd.
Raleigh, NC 27606
Sam Matheny, Vice President and General Manager
Tel: 919-850-4541
http://www.dtvplus.com/

DTV Plus, a division of Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc., has been delivering "on-demand" content via digital television signals since 1999. In 2001 DTV Plus launched TotalCast, a comprehensive service providing video, multimedia content and software, all through the DTV signal. TotalCast is a set of licensable head-end hardware and software as well as free receiver software that will run on multiple DTV receivers.
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Key Digital Systems KDS
www.keydigital.com
HD LEEZA hdtv video scaler sale pending. Asking, $2400.00 SOLD. New Retail, $4000.00.
http://hiddenwires.co.uk/resourcesnews/news20030826-03.html

http://www.keydigital.com/press_releases/HDLEEZA.pdf

HD Leeza uses Key Digital's proprietary "Clear Matrix Pro" advanced >motion-assisted scaling/deinterlacing algorithm with film-mode. It scales to standard and custom aspect ratios, and "Dynamic Non Linear Stretch" is also provided for custom aspect ratio control. HD Leeza scales to ALL popular native resolutions, so users can find the "sweet spot" for their display to perform at its finest.

Digital Inputs (two DVI/HDCP, one SDI 270 Mb/s), Analog Inputs (two Component, one RGBHV/pass-through, two S-Video, two Composite), Outputs (one digital DVI/HDCP, one analog RGBHV). The impressive SDI 270 Mb/s input (all-digital connectivity) provides the highest quality de-interlacing and scaling for even SDTV digital video.

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DVS Clipster
http://www.dvs.de/english/products/index.html#http://www.dvs.de/english/products/videosystems/clipster.html

http://private.dvs.de/public/brochures/DVS%20CLIPSTER.pdf

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HDStationPlus and HDStationRGB --  HDTV disk recorders
http://www.dreamwalks.com/products/store/hdstationplus/datasheet/techspecs.pdf

http://www.dvs.de/english/products/index.html#http://www.dvs.de/english/products/videosystems/hdstationplus.html

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the QuBit server from QuVis
www.qubit.com.cn
www.qubit.com

The QuBit ST digital motion image recorder
http://www.quvis.com/products/qubitST.htm

http://www.era-tv.com/events/2004/HiFiShow/pic/big/6_Qubit_Quvis.jpg

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TELECINE  Evertz Microsystems Ltd
http://www.evertz.com/
http://www.broadcastpapers.com/telecine/Evertz1080p06.htm


X-1202H   12x2 HDTV Router With Dual or Quad 12x2 AES Audio
http://www.evertz.com/products/X-1202H.php


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Panasonic AJ-HD2700
1080I/720P Switchable D-5 HD VTR   aka(HDD5) $64,500  to $25,000

AJ-HD3700
D-5 HD multiformat mastering VTR


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