[mythtv-users] Urgent question about the pcHDTV 3000

John Patrick Poet john at BlueSkyTours.com
Wed Nov 10 21:26:27 UTC 2004


On Wed, 10 Nov 2004, Shawn wrote:

> On the website it says it only support terrestrial HDTV broadcasts, and
> not cable HDTV.


True, for the moment.  The card is capable of handling QAM for decoding of
content from your cable provider, but it will be a while before a driver is
written to allow this.

The card will not be able to handle encrypted QAM.

The card *may* not be able to tune some of the real high channel numbers
that your cable company may use.


> Does this mean it could not accept a video input from the cable
> company's HDTV tuner?


True.  The cable company HDTV tuner spits out decoded video -- it does *not*
spit out the raw mpeg2 data (except for maybe via fire-wire).  The HD-3000
wants the "raw" mpeg2 data.

To "record" the data being spit out by your cable company HDTV tuner box,
you would need a device which could re-encode back into mpeg2 or mpeg4.  The
HD-3000 does not *encode* anything.

If you can get ahold of a cable HDTV decoder box, which has an active
fire-wire jack, you can capture the raw mpeg2 data that way.  This would not
involve an HD-3000 card, however.  You would need a fire-wire port on your
computer, and some software which makes your computer look like a DVHS deck.


> I was expecting to be able to use the pcHDTV 3000 like I currently use
> my PVR-250, and that is as an SVIDEO capture with myth controlling
> channels via serial cable.


The HD-3000 does have an s-video input, but you cannot transmit full-res
HDTV via s-video.  You could use the HD-3000 to capture "down converted"
HDTV using it's s-video input.  You could do the same thing with your PVR-250.


Make sense?

John


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