Wide World of Women

I have a problem getting Directv2pc to work on my system.

Here are the basics.

1. I have DirecTv (obviously)
2. 4 Monitors (Viewsonic VP2130b)
3. 2 Video Cards (Nvidia Geoforce 8800 GTS)
4. Windows XP - SP3

When I run the Directv2PC Playback Advisor everything comes back perfect except:

Video Connection Type: Digital (without HDCP)

I updated the drivers for both the monitors and the graphics cards only to discover that the monitors do not support HDCP. GREAT!

This page, provided by DirecTv, states that you can still view video with out HDCP monitors, just not in HD. I can't figure out what they want me to do to make this happen.

[url]http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/oem/directv/dtcp-ip-advisor/enu/troubleshooting.jsp#7[/url]

I would appreciate any help.

According to what was written, you can still watch Directv2PC if your video card is connected to your monitors via VGA connectors.


It seems that you can't figure out what to do because there isn't a VGA connector on your video card. Is this correct?

If you bought your PC pre-assembled, both of your Nvidia 8800 GTS cards most likely have only two DVI connectors per card (no VGA connectors), and according to Directv, you would need DVI to watch your shows in HD, but like you said, your monitors aren't HDCP compliant so that obviously wouldn't work. The only thing I can think of is buying a DVI-to-VGA adapter along with VGA cables to watch DTCP-IP over an analog output.

I'm not 100% sure but I hope this helps.

HDCP sucks for the consumers. Hopefully they'll be an easy hack around it like they did with macrovision.

If your graphics card has an s-video output you should be able to output at SD resolution. If not try messing around with the card's multi monitor settings. You should be able to set the outputs to non HD resolution. I don't know if that will solve it, but it may be worth a shot.

Ok - so I got the Directv2pc thing to work with my setup by using a DVI to VGA adapter. The quality is terrible.

So here is my question.

I have 2 goals that I would like to accomplish.

1. Get good to great quality caps (preferably HD from the Directv receiver downstairs - away from my pc)
2. Transfer recorded Directv programming to my PC hard drive for editing / burning to a DVD.

Here is my configuration:

1. PC - Plenty of HDD space, CPU power, RAM, etc - PLENTY!
2. Graphics cards - I have two (2) Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512
3. Monitors - I have 3 Viewsonic VP2130b
4. Directv Receivers -
a) Right next to my pc (6 -8 ft away) - Hughes DirecTv Tivo - SD-DVR40 (not a HD source)
b) Downstairs - far away from my pc (HD-DVR - HR20-700) - I am connected to this with Direct2pc as described above but the quality is terrible.

What I know so far:
1. The monitors are not HDCP compliant but I can get a Viewsonic VX2433WM for about $175 which is HDCP compliant.
2. The graphics cards are HDCP compliant.
3. When viewing the Directv2pc stream via the DVI to VGA adapter I used a simple screen capture program and only received black images.

What I want to know:
1. What is the best way to get HD caps / recordings to my PC HDD (price not a factor)
2. What is the best way to get HD caps / recordings to my PC HDD (price very much a factor)
3. How can I use the Hughes DirecTv Tivo - SD-DVR40 to get caps / recording to my PC / HDD?
a) What will the resolution / quality by when using the Hughes DirecTv Tivo - SD-DVR40?
4. Do these HDCP strippers work? They are about the same price as a new monitor so not sure of the advantage there.
5. What software do I need to use to actually make the cap? Like I mentioned I used a simple program called HyperSnap and it just resulted in a black image.

Any other advice?

Thanks

I have a DirecTV HD DVR and this is how I go about it...

I record the shows or segments from the DVR to a VHS/DVD Recorder. Once the DVD is full, I finalize and then put the DVD into my computer DVD drive to make clips. Depending upon the content I use VirtualDub or Womble to make the clips with Divx encoder.

Check out Donkeed's talk show thread for clip adds I have done that way.

I think I can answer questions #1 and #5.

To answer #1, there's a few cappers here that use the Hauppauge HD-PVR to record HD channels. I would've suggested getting a CableCARD tuner (if you could find one from ATI) but since you have Directv, that won't work.

And for #5, I think most of the cappers here use VLC to make their caps. Recently I've been using Media Player Classic to make my caps but it's a bit of a pain to use for that purpose.

Actually, with DirecTV2PC, you can only use a screen-capture utility such as Gadwin's Print Screen, which I use. I also have a non-HDCP monitor but my GeForce 8400GS has a VGA connector so I can use that.

This is the quality of the cap it yields:

What did you say??? I was focused on something else.

So with my Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512 I have two DVI outputs.

I moved the DVI cable on my primary monitor to the VGA jack on the monitor and added the DVI - VGA conversion plug.

My results are no where near the quality that rocky shows... Not even close.

Second, when using Directv2pc the program progress bar is always on the bottom of the screen. Does anyone know how to remove that?


I am still looking for other suggestions on how to get some good quality caps while using Directv.

Thanks for the replies.

I think if you pause or touch certain keys on the keyboard or move the mouse the bar will appear. On some capture programs the keyboard combinations might turn on the bar. With Print Screen I usually hit the Print Screen Key while the show is running and unless I hit Print Screen too soon after fast-forwarding the bar will not appear while capping.

And today at Best Buy I saw a 19" LG monitor with HDCP for $119. My current monitor is a 19" Westinghouse I bought in 2007 and it was $200 then.

So if I go buy an HDCP monitor then all of my problems are solved?

That looks like the only option if you want to watch your shows in HD.

I believe you mentioned earlier that you have four Viewsonic monitors. If your going to buy a new one with HDCP, I'd suggest not buying another Viewsonic monitor. I have a 19" I bought over a year ago. The first two weeks it had a few dead pixels (it was a minor annoyance but I ignored it). And now it no longer works properly. The power would come on but the monitor would flicker and go black. Haven't been able to use it in over a week.

Ok so I am looking at this monitor:

Sceptre 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black (X246W-1080P)

http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/Spe ... -1080p.htm

It is about $200.

If I get this monitor what is the best software to capture full motion HD video/audio so I can edit it?

Thanks for all the help.

I've had the best experience with Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 and 8 so far. There's a 30-day free trial of the full product that you may want to try. It has plenty of features and it's incredibly simple to use. And since you have two Nvidia 8800 video cards, you may be able to benefit from CUDA for HD video encoding.

That's my pick but I'm sure the rest of the cappers have better options to share.

EDIT: I don't think I answered your question correctly, at least not entirely. The capture part of your question, I'll leave that for the other cappers to chime in, but for the editing part, I still stand by my PowerDirector suggestion.

There is no way to to capture the video as far as I know. Only stills.

Narrowing this down then.

If I get a monitor similar to the one I posted above I will be able to capture HD stills from Directv2pc?

I just don't want to waste money.

I use DirecTV2PC to do my caps using Hypersnap - get the trial first, but it costs $40. There are a couple of free screencapture pieces of software but aren't the easist or quickest to use. I decided to pay for Hypersnap since it does much more than just screencaptures and works flawlessly for what I use it for. You can see my results in my thread in the Newsbabe forum.

The progress bar is onscreen whenever you move the mouse over the DirectTV2PC software window. It will remain on for the 3 to 5 seconds. I do know that the graphics card does make a difference on whether you get that progress bar during screencapture or not. On my old x1300 card, I could pause the screen and get caps without the progress bar. With a new HD card, the card must render earlier and I get the damn progress bar. So, all of my current caps happen while playing back at normal speed.... there is some artifacts but generally I think my caps look fine.

My old monitor was a Samsung 22" HDCP compliant one, my new one is a Dell HD at 22" but with full 1080p. You can find them both cheaper or in the neighborhood of what you posted above. Both monitors worked fine and are thru direct DVI connectors. Whats silly is that when I hook up my pc to both my monitor and my HDTV, DirecTV2PC won't run because it thinks my 1080p HDTV is not HDCP compliant. Yeah, maybe I should try finding a driver for the HDTV so that I don't have to unhook/hook the HDMI connection whenever I foolishly want to watch my PC screen on my TV.

For video, you're SOL unless you go with the Hauppauge HD PVR (Donkeed knows about it). I've tried numerous pieces of screen and video capture apps and methods and can't do it. I'm not sure where the actual video rendering takes place, but my guess is that its in the reciever and not on the PC, since I can't find any associated video files while DirecTV is running on the PC. Cyberlink sure got smart somehow to prevent that from happening. Ahole programmers. Oh. Wait.

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I don't think DirecTV2PC supports multiple monitors. I didn't get that monitor I was talking about, I got a new TV for my computer room instead. DirecTV leased me an HD DVR for the main room and an HD reciever for the computer room TV, which was a 5 year old 20" Magnavox analog SDTV. For the national satellite channels in DirecTV there are both HD and SD feeds for the channels which have HD, except the local HD channels which are HD only. I would watch football on that old TV on one of the networks (CBS/NBC/ABC/Fox and even PBS has local Nebraska sports) and when the quarterback went back to pass, he would disappear from the 4:3 screen! So I got a new 19" Dynex HDTV instead. I do think there isn't much difference between what my Westinghouse monitor displays with DirecTV2PC and what I get with the Dynex and the 32" Vizio which the DVR is hooked up to. And that PAB cap speaks for itself.

Ok - So now I have a HP 2509m LCD monitor that is HDCP capable.

However, whenever I do a cap from Direct2tv I just get a black image.

How do I capture an actual image?

I have tried Hypersnap (I own it).

I have also tried Gadwin PrintScreen - still getting a black image.
- - -> I have 4 monitors (3 non-hdcp) When I try and capture the primary screen (the HP) Gadwin always captures the last screen I clicked on - which I have to do to get rid of the progress bar.

1. How can I capture an image that is not all black using Directv2pc?
2. Any advice on always capturing a certain monitor no matter which one has the focus?

Thanks