SCART input to PC

November 6, 2006 4:05 AM

I have a Freeview box with SCART output that I want to watch on my PC. It doesnt have any kind of video input yet, but thats where you lovely people come in.

Almost a year ago my TV blew up while I was studying my degree. As as was so busy I thought it was a good thing - one less distraction. I graduated 7 months ago and havent missed it. I dumped the TV, sold my HiFi and DVD player, but now I have a Freeview box doing nothing.

How can I connect its SCART output to my PC so that I can watch Windowed TV while working, or maybe record stuff as well? Ive tried USB and PCI DVB tuners but they've all been slow and nasty to use. It's a great Sony Freeview box that I don't want to go to waste.

posted by lemonfridge to computers & internet (7 comments total)

if you have a capture card on your pc, and a way of displaying the video on your desktop, then all you need is one of these cables.
posted by ascullion at 4:09 AM on November 6, 2006

That looks like the right sort of thing!

Is there software available that can very quickly and simply show the incoming video without requiring a full blown capturing application?
posted by lemonfridge at 4:20 AM on November 6, 2006

Is there software available that can very quickly and simply show the incoming video without requiring a full blown capturing application?

Almost definitely, yes. Though I'm not sure what.. vlc or mplayer might be able to do it, though I don't know the right configuration options.

by the way, depending on your sound card you might also need one of these.
posted by ascullion at 4:47 AM on November 6, 2006

hmm, perhaps not in your set of acceptable answers but have you thought of buying a USB DAB device? You can buy a reasonable one off e-bay for approx UKP 25.00. They are quite compact, deatureful and come with all the required software
posted by gadha at 4:52 AM on November 6, 2006

Ive tried USB and PCI DVB tuners but they've all been slow and nasty to use.

You're going to require the same kind of software with an analog video capture device, so it might be your PC that's the problem.
posted by cillit bang at 5:12 AM on November 6, 2006

cillit bang - Unlikely. I have a dual core setup with 2Gb of RAM and SLI graphics cards. I've yet to see it strain with anything. All the tuning would be done on the Freeview box, so the PC would only need to display the video that would normally be fed to the TV. If I want to change the channel I'll just use the Freeview's remote, not the PC.

gadha - I've tried the USB alternatives, and they sucked BIG time.

Any recomendations on Capture cards?
posted by lemonfridge at 5:30 AM on November 6, 2006

lemonfridge - re: DTT cards. have you tried the nebula digitv? it's very good - has decent software and is very reliable.
posted by ascullion at 5:36 AM on November 6, 2006