[mythtv-users] standard vs digital cable

Joseph Fry joe at thefrys.com
Mon Jul 14 14:38:40 EDT 2003


I hate it when I'm the second one to respond and sound like a parrot!

maybe between the two of us he'll get it.

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Joseph A. Caputo" <jcaputo1 at comcast.net>
Reply-To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at snowman.net>
Date:  Mon, 14 Jul 2003 16:05:15 -0400

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net
>> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net]On Behalf Of Lonny Selinger
>> Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 3:25 PM
>> To: Discussion about mythtv
>> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] standard vs digital cable
>>
>>
>> I know in my area (Sask Canada) we have digital boxes as well .. its
>> digital to the box and the out is analog. Just playing around with a
>> PVR-250 to see what all it would pick up, I can get all my analog
>> channels straight from the wall, and get all my digital channels off
>> the out from the cable box ... the only problem is its using their
>> menuing system etc ... I can display any channel through the PVR-250
>> tuned to the out channel on the box.
>>
>> I've spoken to a couple people and they say you can use almost any
>> digital reciever here and get the higher channels so I'm wondering if
>> grabbing a digital card (at some point), that also handles analog
>> would be the solution.
>>
>> I read that WinTV-D cards should be able to do this but I haven't
>> hammered away to see what the support uner Linux is ... so far its
>> looking scarce and not worth it *yet*
>
>
>Digital cable is not the same thing as digital television.  Digital
>television is when the broadcast data (from satellite, over-the-air or
>cable) complies with a particular digital broadcast standard.  Digital cable
>is not a standard.  It is simply a digital transport for the same old
>NTSC-resolution TV picture.  Basically, the cable provider compresses the
>video feed into an MPEG stream so more channels will fit down the pipe (plus
>you don't get picture interference like with a purely analog broadcast).
>Each cable provider has their own implementation readable by only their own
>set-top boxes.  This is why you never see a 'digital cable ready' television
>set or a 'digital cable' tuner card... a set/card would have to be able to
>decode the signal from *your* particular cable company, and of course the
>cable companies have no incentive to enable you to use any device other than
>their own set-top box.
>
>Bottom line:  the WinTV-D or any 'digital tuner' cards are useless for
>digital cable.
>
>-JAC
>
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>mythtv-users at snowman.net
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