Fernsehen: Recording TV with Component Video

Gehört zu: Fernsehen

Recording TV with Component Video

How to record TV

As recording of videos via (digital) HDMI is very much restricted by copy protection mechanisms like HCP, there is the analog back door

  • Composite Video is of lowest quality
  • Component Video if of high quality and reaches nearly digital quality with HDTV

So I’m looking for video recorders (PVR) with Component Video as AV input.

My Shortlist

Some products need to be connected to a PC,……

  • Monsoon Vulkano Blast
  • PCTV Broadway T2
  • Fantec R2750
  • Hauppauge HD PVR   (needs a PC)
  • AVerMedia TV USB HD DVR
  • Technisat DIGIT HD8-C

My Evaluation

Tabelle 1: Meine Bewertung

Eigenschaft Vulkano Blast PCTV Broadway T2 Fantec R2750 Hauppauge HD PVR
Stand alone (without PC) Yes Yes No
Integrated TV Tuner No Yes 2 DVB-T Yes 2 DVB-T No
AV Inpuit Composite Video Yes Yes (CVBS) Yes
AV Input S-Video Yes Yes
AV Input Component Video Yes No No Yes
AV Output Component Video Yes Yes
AV Output HDMI Yes No No
Storage Internal Disk Yes No Yes No
Storage SD Card Slot Yes
Network Connectivity LAN Yes Gigabit Yes
Network Connectivity WiFi /WLAN) Yes Yes
Video recording Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Recording media internal disk .USB device FAT32 internal disk or USB device PC via USB
  Recording by hardware encoder H.264 ? No H.264
  Recording resolution 720×480 ./. 720×576 1080i, 720p
  Recording Stream Formats .Digital input: unchanged TS

Analog input: H.264

MPEG2 AVCHD & AC3/AAC
  Recording Container ./. TS, M2TS, MP4
Video Playback from…
   Playback from AV/In Yes
   Playback from TV tuner Yes
   Playback from streaming server in network (i.e. streaming client) Yes
   Playback from recorded video Yes
Video Playback to….
  Playback to AV/out
  Playback via Streaming Server to DLNA devices in the network Yes DLNA, UPnP Yes Yes No
   Streaming Formats H.264 / MPEG-4 H.264 ./.
  Streaming with time shifting, FF/FR Yes via PC software ./.
   Streaming to mobile devices iPad/iPhone/iPod Yes Yes ./.
   Streaming to mobile devices Android Yes Yes via WebBrowser with Adobe Flash ./.
Power supply 9V / 2.5 A (17W) 12V / 2 A 12 V / 3 A 5 V / 2 A

 

Computer: iPad vs. Android Tablets

Gehört zu: Tablets
Siehe auch: iPad, Android

Vergleich iPad vs. Android-Tablets

I have both, an

  • iPad 2 ( Display 2048×1536)
  • Android 4.0 Tablet: Acer Iconia Tab A500. (Display WXGA 1280×800)
  • Android 4.0 Tablet: Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 (Display 1920×1080 “Full HD”)

Tabelle 1: Vergleich iPad vs. Android Tablet

 
iPad Android Tablet Comment
Very easy usage ++ (-) personal taste
Stylish appearence (e.g. thin etc) ++ + Asus is equally thin
Display resolution ++ ++ I personally could live with 1280×720 HD
Charging with 5V (via USB power adapter / PC / external battery) + important for mobile usage
Icons per Screen 20+4 56 ridiculous iPad restriction, but not decisive for me
USB-Host- for external devices (flash drive, card reader, 3G,..) ++ I love USB flash drives to quickly interchange my large video files
Open file system (E.g.: One video file stored on the device can be played by different Video-Apps installed) ++ I want to try (and even use in parallel) different Apps for the same purpose i.e. working with the same files
Support of Adobe Flash within the Web Browser ++ My QNAP NAS has a flash-based Web interface. This can be used on Android “as is”. Wheras on iPad I need an extra App (if available)
Quantity of usefull Apps ++ + Android is getting much better, but iPad is unbeaten

Durch das konsequente Abschotten gegen Industriestandards, die das Nutzen von vorhandenen Lösungen per Standard-Architekturen (z.B. Web-Browser mit Adobe Flash, externe USB-Geräte,…) ermöglichen, ist Apple gezwungen für jedes und alles eine individuelle propieträre Sonderlocke als “App” anzubieten. Womit die Chance besteht, eine eigenlich über Standards mögliche Funktionalität in propietärem Gewand “schicker” darzubieten.

Computer: Musik: Vinyl LPs digitized and uploaded to iTunes Match

Gehört zu: Audio
Siehe auch: MP3, iTunesDigitize CDs

Musik: Vinyl LPs digitized and uploaded to iTunes Match

I already have converted all my od Vinyl LP records to MP3 – his has been done by a service from the German AWO.

Problems with these MP3 audio files:

  • They are properly named, but they do not have MP3 tags
  • The quality is sometimes not that good

The idea is to put them into my iTunes Library and go through the process of iTunes Match in order to replace most of them without costs by high quality AAC audio files from the iTunes Store.

In order to do this and gain all the advantages from iTunes Match two things are necessary:

  • Put these old MP3 files in exactly the folder structure that I use for my iTunes, as the eventually replaced and better AAC files will be downloaded from the cloud into that folder structure i.e. Folder “Artist” –> Folder “Album” –> Audio file (with filename = song title)
  • Create ID3 tags with “Artist”, “Album” and “Title”, as iTunes Match will use these when downloading from the cloud and iTunes Match will not use the tags contained in their AAC audio files (take special care if “Album Artist” ist used)

Creating ID3 Tags with MP3Tag

After I have put my MP3 audio files into folders by Arstist and sub-folders by Album, it’s easy to create the ID3 tags with the excellent software tool MP3Tag:

  • Navigate to a album folder
  • select all files in that folder
  • enter artist name and album name once for all the songs and save.
  • Click “Convert” in the menu bar and choose “Filename – Tag” with a “Format String” of “%skip% %title%”

Copy the MP3 files to my local iTunes Library

xxxx

iCloudStatus =

  • Waiting,
  • Uploaded
  • Matched
  • Duplicate

KInd = …..

  • Matched AAC Audio File
  • MPEG Audio File
  • …..

 

Computer: External Enclosure for a Mobile 2.5″ Disk

Gehört zu: Speicher
Siehe auch: Festplatte

Ein externe Festplatte (Hard Disk) zum Speichen meiner Daten

For working with my tablet computers I need more storage space than the built-in storage of 32 GB or 64 GB. So I decided to use a mobile hard disk of 500 GB or 750 GB or 1 TB. Now I am looking for a suitable external enclose and the disk itself.

My requirements for the external disk enclosure

  • Form: usable for 2.5″ disks of 9.5 mm height
  • Size: Super Slim i.e. max. 13 mm high
  • Limitation of disk storage capacity: 1 TB or even better if no limitation at all
  • Controller: SATA-300
  • Data connection to computer: USB 2.0 or better (say: eSATA or USB 3.0)
  • Normal power supply: via USB data connection (5 V, 500 mA = 2.5 Watt)
  • Extra power supply by 5V DC-In

My shortlist

  • Raidsonic MB668U3-1SB http://www.testberichte.de/p/icy-dock-tests/mb668u3-1sb-testbericht.html
  • Raidsonic MB668US
  • Raidsonic MB668U
  • Raidsonic IB-250StU3
  • Raidsonic IB-266StUS-B
  • CnMemory Core 1,6 mm
  • igozz slim 1TB

My elaluation

Raidsonic MB668U3:
13mm, 5V DC-In, unlimited disk capacity, USB 3.0
Raidsonic MB668US-1SB:
Same as above, but USB 2.0 only and capacity limit 750 GB
Raidsonic MB668U:
Same as above, but withaut eSATA
Raidsonic IB 250StU3:
USB 3.0, not limitation for disk capacity, no eSATA, Height: 12mm or 17mm
Raidsonic IB-266StUS-B:
This is the box I am using already for my TV recordings, 500 GB limitation, eSATA, DC-In
CnMemory Core
Abmessung: 122,5 mm x 77,5 mm x 14 mm
igozz slim 1TB

Requirements for the Hard Disk

  • Serial ATA
  • Height 9.5 mm
  • Electrical engergy consumption less than 2.5 Watt

Shortlist for the Hard Disk

Evaluation

WD7500BPKT: Scorpio Black:

  • Kapazität: 750 GB
  • Schnittstelle:Serial ATA-300
  • 7200 rpm
  • Bauhöhe: 9.5 mm
  • 16 MB Cache
  • Leistungsaufnahme: 3.3 Watt

Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT (1 TB)

  • Kapazität: 1 TB
  • Schnittstelle Serial ATA-300
  • 5400 rpm
  • Bauhöhe 9.5 mm
  • 8 MB Cache
  • Leistungsaufnahme 2.5 Watt

My Decision

  • Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT (1 TB) –> needs 2.5 Watt only
  • Raidsonic MB668U3: –> slim 13 mm, DC-In, no limitation on storage capacity

 

 

Computer: Working with the rooted Acer Iconia A500 Tablet

Gehört zu: Tablet
Siehe auch: Android

Added value for rooting my Acer Iconia A500 Tablet

The rooted Acer Iconia A500 works great. Advantages are:

  • Titanium Backup
  • Time Syncronization with free App “ClockSync”
  • Samba File Server with free App “Samba Filesharing”
  • Linux Superuser command line support (App: Terminal Emulation) e.g. for “mount”

Included in the flashed ROM image from Thor (v164) was also:

  • Ethernet by wire with USB-Ethernet adapter
  • WiFi tethering
  • 3G meodem support: Huawei xyz

USB devices sucessfully tested:

  • USB Stick (flash drine) CnMemory mistral 32 GB formatted FAT32
  • Fixed disk Samsung HM320IJ (320 GB) formatted FAT32 – mounted in an Raidsonic Icy Box IB-266 StUSD-B
  • Ethernet by USB: davicom DM9601 usb ethernet adapter native support
  • USB Card Reader: Digitus USB 2.0 Multi Card Reader DA-70310-2

Scenario 1: A500 Samba Filesharing for iPad

  • Configure as WIFi Access Point: Settings -> More -> “Portable WiFi Hotspot”
  • Plug in external hard disk: 320 GB with 200 MP4 videos
  • Start Samba Filesharing

Scenario 2: A500 TwonkyServer Mobile for iPad

  • Configure as WIFi Access Point: Settings -> More -> “Portable WiFi Hotspot”
  • Plug in external hard disk (Samsung 320 GB disk with 200 MP4 videos)
  • Mount external hard disk in a folder on the sdcard (this lets Twonky include the media from the hard disk)
    • Open Terminal
    • cd /mnt/sdcard (only once: mkdir usbvideos)
    • su
    • mount -o bind /mnt/usb_storage/videos ./usbvideos
    • exit
  • Start TwonkyServer Mobile (how?)
    • try “Rescan” in Twony if hard disk was mounted after Twonky start
  • On the iPad
    • Establish WiFi connection to the portable WiFi hotspot
    • Start App “AcePlayer” -> Medien Explorer ->Media Servers -> TwonkyServer Mobile
  • Streaming with TwonkyServer Mobile sucessfully tested with:
    • MP4 container with AVC (H.264) video and ACC audo
    • AVI container with .DivX video and MP3 audio