[mythtv-users] digital cable vs OTA in Toronto

Tom Lichti tom at redpepperracing.com
Fri Jun 1 18:24:47 UTC 2007


Brian J. Murrell wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-06-01 at 13:56 -0400, Tom Lichti wrote:
>   
>> Cnudde, Paul wrote:
>>     
>>> So I went and got myself a pcHDTV5500 and with the plethora of valuable info on this list, managed to get it up and running in Myth with almost no difficulty. I am not a digital cable subscriber and therefore can only watch the unencrypted streams which come down my coax. Unfortunatley of the 25 or so such channels which I do get, I would probably only watch about...none of them.  Mostly because the majority of stations are just time shifted versions of stations I already get with my analog setup, and the rest of them seem to be perpetually showing commercials or "so you think you can dance" (shudder).
>>>       
>> I find my setup records quite a lot from these channels, since the 
>> quality is far superior to the analog conversions I get from my PVRx50 
>> cards, and the file size is smaller.
>>     
>
> So just to get this straight, with Rogers one can get (all?) channels in
> one's cable package with a pcHDTV5500?  They are QAM?  IOW, I would get
> as many channels with a pcHDTV5500 as I would with a PVR-250 on analog?
>   
No,  you get only what they put on the wire unencrypted, which happens 
to be all of the timeshift channels (CBC/CTV/Global from the west and 
east) plus CNN and Treehouse (not sure why those two, but whatever). And 
yes, they are QAM256. You can also get the music channels, if that 
interests you. Oh, and the ROD channels are there, but you are at the 
mercy of what other people are watching. In gets....interesting...

IOW, no, you would not get as many channels as with a PVR-250, BUT they 
are timeshifted, so you get more options if there are conflicts. Plus 
the quality is much better, since they are digital captures without any 
analog/digital conversions.
>   
>> I get about 12 HD channels OTA in Brampton, but 
>> that is with a pole mounted exterior CM4228 antenna. As for the quality 
>> of the channels OTA versus QAM? Uh, yeah, WAY better quality... :)
>>     
>
> Is your distinction ("WAY") that all of the OTA channels you are getting
> are HD or is OTA inherently better than Rogers' QAM for some reason?  If
> they were not HD, there'd be no meaningful distinction?  Is it only HD
> that you are getting OTA or is there some additional channels available
> in your area, just SD though?  What are the 12 you are getting?  Mom
> lives there and I'm just weighing options.
>   
Yes, all the channels I get are OTA are digital HD, which is inherently 
better than an SD QAM channel.  I get CBC, Fox, PBS and CBS perfectly, 
once I get the antenna on a tower I will hopefully get CTV, ABC and NBC 
better. I can get them now, but they dropout too often to be watchable. 
There are some other channels, but I don't watch them (SUN, MyTV, WNLO, 
and others)

Tom



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