[mythtv-users] ATSC/QAM tuner card recommendations

Daniel J. Quinones djquinones at elp.rr.com
Sat Sep 5 18:02:28 UTC 2009


Iım new to this list so please forgive me if I say anything redundant or
break any ³rules.²

As for the days of unencrypted QAM, I have two stories to share:
My dad, who lives in Texas and subscribes to TW, has an HDTV with built in
QAM.  The tuner decodes quite a few HD channels that are not available over
the air, such as ESPN, ESPN 2, and HD Theater.  IN addition, the tuner
brings several channels that normally require the cable companyıs digital
converter.  That is how things were last time I saw him early last month.
I live in Southern California and recently purchased the AverMedia Volar MAX
Hybrid USB TV tuner.  This card has both NTSC and QAM tuners.  The QAM tuner
does not decode much at all.  Several QAM channels show up with lock icons
next to them when I perform a scan using the manufacturerıs software.  This
leads me to believe that the majority of channels can only be decrypted by
the cable companyıs equipment.
I am unaware if my dadıs TV still receives the channels it did before the
FCC ruling this past week.

I hope this provides some insight and I look forward to future messages on
this list.

Brian Wood wrote: 
> Though several people have indicated they think the days of unencrypted QAM
> may be limited. 
> 
That has been completely blown out of proportion. The fact that cable
companies can turn on 'privacy mode' on their cheap DTAs means that
extended basic will no longer be available over clear QAM for those
markets. That also got people worried that if they already had a good
number of cable channels over clear QAM, those would be deactivated in
the future. However, the vast majority of people only ever got the
local broadcast channels over clear QAM, and cable companies are
required by law to have those 'must carry' channels available on their
network over clear QAM. That is not going to change. 
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