Dirk Koopman wrote: > Does anybody have any metrics as to which is better:- > > 1. a cheapo PCI card (say a conexant based one like the Hauppauge > nova-T). > 2. a USB based unit. Depends. (wow, that's an answer, isn't it? ;) Wheter the data comes from USB or PCI shouldn't matter that much - both are busmastered, so both payloads come in without much CPU-Load. However, most PCI cards don't have hardware filtering, so the whole TS goes over the PCI-Bus, and must be processed by the CPU. It's not too much, however. Even with 6 of them in parallel, it's still only as much as one uncompressd PAL signal, which is handled by analog TV cards fine. The filtering, however, could be more CPU intensive. I don't know the relevant codepath by hearth, but I think it's the limiting factor. USB devices, at least the USB1.1 compatible ones, have hardware filters, so you only get the data you need. (Note: at least USB-Nova-T 1.1 cards require calculating a checksum over the whole "muxpack", i.e. data, so they probably eat a "lot" of CPU time.) If you want to get the whole multiplexes, however, you need the full bandwidth anyway (and you wouldn't get far with USB1.1 then). Still, having 6 adapters in one PC is at least adventurous - i wouldn't assume that it's working unless you saw it working before :) Felix
