[mythtv-users] HDTV digital static with DVB

[Preston Crow]

On Mon, 2005-11-07 at 13:08 -0700, C. R. Oldham wrote:
> I was wondering where
> you are located physically and how you can tell that there are digital OTA
> broadcasts in your area?

Near Boston, MA.

> I live in the Phoenix metro area (Chandler) and
> can't seem to find any information on whether or not any of the local TV
> stations are broadcasting digital (other than the local PBS affiliate KAET).

http://antennaweb.org/
Put in your address, and it will tell you what stations you can hope to
pick up, what type of antenna you will need, and what direction to point
it in.  I was lucky in that all my stations are within five degrees of
each other, so a good directional antenna gets them all.

> In addition, you mention a rooftop antenna for your digital ATSC setup--it
> seems from reading I have done on the web that digital TV still broadcasts
> in the VHF bands, so a "standard" VHF antenna should work fine?

Nope, they're all UHF.  For example, Fox KSAZ-DT is channel 10.1, but it
broadcasts on the frequency for UHF channel 31.

> Related to your original question, it sounds like you can't pinpoint when
> this problem started.  Has it always been the case that you get static with
> the HD2000?

Always with the DVB drivers, but never with the video4linux drivers.
That's why I think it's a buffer size issue.  With the DVB drivers, I
generally get perfect sound, and just a few squares or rectangles of odd
colors popping up every few seconds.  Occasionally, it gets worse, and
may even skip over a fraction of a second on playback.

> Not being a "real" Myth user as of yet, it "feels" to me that your cards are
> not getting enough PCI bus bandwidth.  You might try swapping the cards in
> the slots (as sometimes preference is given to a card based on its slot), or
> flashing the BIOS on your motherboard in case a recent BIOS update might
> tinker with PCI timing.  Those are just guesses on my part.

Possible, but I don't know if that would explain the video4linux driver
working.  That makes me suspect it's a driver issue, not a bus issue.

--PC