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I recently came across this device: USB Video Grabber, and it got me thinking.
What it does in a nutshell is to take the analogue signals from the composite cables (red, yellow, white) and smush that into a USB input, which presumably is interpreted by some software.
I have a digital TV set top box, a Soniq QMD501H, which I have connected to my pre-digital TV set. This basically takes the RF cable (from antenna) as an input, and outputs to composite cables (red, yellow, white), which I plug into my TV set. If I buy this device, instead of plugging it the component cables into the TV, I can plug them into this device, and plug this device into my computer, and watch/record TV on my computer.
However, what I realised was that this was a rather circuitous route: there's at least two conversions going on, at least one of which is completely unnecessary.
My set top box tells me that the Standard Definition channels are broadcast in MPEG1
and MPEG2
, and the High Defintion channels are broadcast in MPEG2
some format it simply calls HD
(720p and 1080i).
My computer can understand all of these formats, so I was wondering, why not get these to input directly into my computer?
Is there a device / software that will allow me to bypass the the digital set top box, and get the digital signal directly onto a computer?
If this is not possible, how can I achieve this through my digital set top box?
Setup/device details:
My digital set top box also has a HDMI
output, and a RS-232
, and Y-Pb-Pr
outputs that are currently unused, in addition to the composite cables used by the TV..
My computer only has USB
inputs (it's a laptop).
When you say component you really mean composite. The Y-Pb-Pr output you speak of is component. – prestomation – 2009-12-29T14:46:32.710
This looks like a digital set top box to receive free OTA digital channels, not a box provided by a cable/satellite company, correct? – prestomation – 2009-12-29T14:49:27.803
@prestomation, yup, i think you're correct (component vs composite). also, yes these are free to air digital channels, not a subscription model. – bguiz – 2009-12-29T14:59:54.617