[mythtv-users] PCHDTV-5500 Sound and Contrast on ubuntu

[Brad Templeton]

On Tue, Jun 27, 2006 at 10:13:37AM -0400, Nathan Smith wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Jun 2006, Brad Templeton wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > QAM and ATSC are just variant modulation schemes.  The end result is the
> > same, think of it like a file download over the air, not a capture.
> >
> > Obviously a card like the pchdtv is primarily for that.  While they can
> > capture NTSC, they're not considered particularly good choices for
> > that.   Rather, people get the cards for digital TV and figure they might
> > as well have them as an extra analog card since they have the ability to
> > do it.  They have no compression hardware on them, so capture takes
> > CPU (of course any HD capable system has more than enough CPU.)
> 
> The quality I get for NTSC on my 5500 rivals anything that I've seen on
> regular TV, so I'm really interested how great ATSC will be.
> 
> > Personally, I use my pchdtv for OTA rather than QAM.  There can be
> > some issues with occasional reception dropouts, but OTA you will
> > find more channels than the cable companies give you, including SD
> > versions of the HD channels (allowing much more compact recordings
> > of SD programs which are upscaled on the HD channels)   Some people
> > have reported cable companies reducing the data rate on their QAM
> > feeds, though QAM-256 does have 38 mb/s data rate and thus can
> > handle twice what an ATSC channel does, there are reports of people
> > seeing cable companies stuff in more channels.
> 
> Interesting.. I'm going to buy an HD antenna soon. Are you using a 3000-
> or a 5500?

The 3000.   And the Digital TV programs seriously blow away anything you
will capture from NTSC.   The 480i DTV programs are no sharper, but they
do have better colour and contrast.