[mythtv-users] Is the pchdtv card looking good?

[Steele Price]

Comments and edits snips inline...

Steele Price
CTO
Digital Dreamshop
http://xtcp.net

>
> I'm sure many vendors think they'll end up having to deal with support,
> and support staffs aren't cheap (even the bad ones). Some are also very
> protective of their 'intellectual property', and aiding open-source
> drivers would make it much easier for the competition to figure how
> they do this and that, and could result in them losing whatever edge
> the might have had over other mfgs.
>

Surely you jest :-)  I can't remember ever getting anything useful out of
either emails or phone calls to the asian mfg companies...

>> back to the point... ATSC signals are ATSC signals
>
> Not quite. Let me qualify that. Terrestrial broadcast ATSC signals are
> terrestrial broadcast ATSC signals. Cable ATSC signals are cable ATSC
> signals. The two are not exactly compatible with one another, and a
> tuner designed for one won't work with the other, unless it is a
> dual-mode tuner (which most aren't).
>

I suppose I should have have qualified that as terrestrial ATSC... since
neither the AccessTV, nor the MyHD pick up cable ATSC (that I am aware
of... and I don't have cable anyway.)

>> I
>> believe that saving a single stream is possible and could be very
>> beneficial from within software, It would be nice to see a stream
>> selection when HDTV really gets going so we can drop the lower quality
>> stream in transit(and vice versa) and just save the one we want, thus
>> saving LOTS of hd space.
>
> My understanding is that you actually can do this with the pcHDTV. Or
> at least, you can choose not to capture the unwanted audio streams that
> are usually muxed in (i.e. SAP). I'm not certain about multiple
> resolutions of HDTV streams. Is it your understanding that there
> multiple HDTV resolutions broadcast for each HD channel? I thought it
> was just one, and any down-sampling was done at the client end... Or
> did I misunderstand what you were saying?

I don't think you misunderstood.  I have saved MANY HD streams and they
all included 2 resolutions, 720p and 480i (this probably changes from
station to station)  I have only capped streams in Phoenix on ABC and NBC
and both where the same, however, on NBC... The West Wing still looked
like crap... Why is one of the highest nielsen numbers shows broadcast at
the worst possible quality (here in Phoenix)  I really will never
understand the mind of business people (and for the same reason, never be
a billionaire.)

>
>> Transcoding is yet another thing and is rife
>> with all it's own problems, but the newer transcode engine seems to
>> handle
>> everything now (last spring it didn't)...
>
> I'm curious to see how long it'll take to transcode a one-hour HD
> show...
>
> --Jarod
>
> --
> Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

Now for the tricky part :-)

I have transcoded on windows using Tom Barry's (AVSForum) stuff and it
does work well, but it is so NOT easy to do that it's not worth the effort
for me.  I wanted the kind of automation we can get from MythTV
eventually.

I have yet to use transcode on an HD stream since I don't have any anymore
and I didn't understand transcode (the program) enough at the time I was
capping to use it.  It is my understanding that it works, and it works
very well as a matter of fact.  Trancode rates as you know wholly depend
on what your output is, I suspect that it will be a slightly longer
process than a normal 640x480 show, at least double, possibly alot more if
you do full resolution, though I really don't think you need to for
archiving, the nicest think about it is that there will be no need for
filtering to get a great transcode.

I plan on 2 methods.  Method 1. Capping satstreams and transcoding them
with no resolution changes to xvid. and Method 2. Capping ATSC Terrestrial
signals and transcoding them untouched (except for commercial extraction)
to xvid.  hopefully these will be fully automated and just run overnight,
I wish we were starting summer right now so I could work all this out
before all the new shows start, but it might not take as long as i am
expecting.