17 inch 16:9 assault on high end project

[Hezz]

All good ideas except that most people are using dscaler in conjunction with video capture card to get the best possible scaled picture. However some of the existing software that comes with PVR and TV capture cards is not too bad and will work for scaling an external source. I don't know if dscaler will work with a USB solution.

THe issue with using dscaler with a notebook computer is that it keeps the CPU at 70-90 % usage for long periods of time and creates a lot of heat. This might be a problem for some notebooks. Also older notebooks won't have USB ports but notebooks of the era that do are more likely to work as they are also likely to have video chips with full screen MPEG decoding capability.

The beauty of DIY is finding an acceptable work around that works for you. External USB PVR and HD with an older notebook might work well for some.

Hezz

[robmx]

Thanks,

I want HD content though. But you gave me a good idea. There is a company that is about to offer an HD USB 2 receiver.

I wonder if my 650 MHz laptop can handle that.

Robmx

[Hezz]

For just watching Tv from the card it would probably be OK. Some of the Tv capture cards have hardware that supposedly takes the load off of the CPU. But you will want to do a lot of research. HTPC news is a good forum for HTPC information.

Hezz

[Hezz]

Here are a couple of pictures on my projector project. It is moving kind of slow because I had to build a computer table to go in the corner and also new A/V rack. The rack is almost done and will replace the old one that is shown in the picture. It is designed to house a large case tower computer for the HTPC to drive the projector.

Also shown in the picture is the new backup internet computer on the corner computer table. I wish I had a picture of the A/V rack as it is looking pretty good.

Hezz

[Hezz]

A pic of the new computer table and the old A/V rack.

[Hezz]

Robmx,

I think I mislead you on the above post where I said the USB TV card would work. IF you mean regular analog NTSC TV card it will probably work but it might not be fast enough for full screen playback. If it is HD as in high definition it won't have the horsepower. HTPC builders are finding that HDTV cards require serious computer horsepower. But I think there is one PCI model which doesn't use your CPU resources to decode the signal. Normally, you would need a minimum of AMD 3300 XP or Intel pentium 4 3.2 gig or AMD 64 CPU for the high definition TV playback.

IF when you said HD you meant hard drive based TV card recording of standard analog TV then all should be OK. That is what I was thinking at first but then I realized you probably meant HDTV.

Hezz

[SmC252]

Why not use an external descaler? I bought a 1280x1024 descaler/tv-box brand new for $70 shipped on ebay.

[robmx]

I am only talking about HDTV.

I have numerous OTA HDTV receivers and a 8300 HDTV cable box.

What is an external descaler, what does it do and how does it fit into what I am trying to do? How would l use it?

Bob Miller

[Hezz]

Dscaler is a program which deinterlaces and then scales a standard interlaced video signal into a progressive digital format which can be utilized by your computers video card.

This is only necessary if you want to show common video sources on your big screen like VCR or video camera. There are some expensive computer scaling cards which do all of this in hardware. In addition there are some used external box scalers which were expensive things used in the past and present for driving high resolution projectors from a standard DVD signal. Since a lot of HT enthusiests are going to HTPC to drive the projector many of these scalers are available used on e-bay. Also there are some relatively good ones available for a more reasonable price. But as far as how many of these are meant to be used with a computer through a USB port I don't know.

Hezz

[Nads]

Robmx. Unfortunatly most usb2 PVR devices require a 1800+ mhz cpu, but this one youve` found may be the exception, and if it is please post details, cos I for one would be interested. The plus side is MOST usb devices with video in can handle good frame rates, but a hardware encoding chipset usb device are few and far between. It would prolly be cheaper to buy Epia SP 1300, which as far as I am aware is the fastest production model. It has onboard LVDS controller, allowing certain laptop LCD panels to be used, along with low noise and power consumption and mpeg4 acceleration. In the UK these can be bought many places including http://www.mini-itx.com/store/ . They are not the cheapest of places, but they are helpful. On a bright note, this board has as many inputs as you are likely to require, and has the ability of two PCI cards in a special riser. Best bit is they are small (170mm x 170mm) and thus can be built in to a PJ easily. Slap a Wintv PVR 150 and Win MCE2005 and you would have a PJ/HTPC combo