[mythtv-users] Stepper Directed HDTV Antenna

[Simon Hobson]

Erik Hovland wrote:
>http://hackaday.com/2011/01/26/stepper-directed-hdtv-antenna/
>
>The last sentence in the paragraph throws down the gauntlet:
>What we would like to see is this antenna attached to a HTPC,
>and some kind of script to automatically direct the antenna
>for the best possible signal for the current channel.

I couldn't quite make out what they are doing here. Are they a) 
moving the antenna to use different transmitters for different 
channels, or b) moving it about to get the best signal from a 
specific transmitter.

For a) Myth should be able to handle that. My guess is that you'd 
configure a number of sources and have a script triggers when Myth 
changes sources. Or you could do it with channels and make the 
antenna rotation part of the channel change switch.

For b) then I reckon if your signal is so bad that you have to keep 
twiddling the antenna then I'd not bother with it - or put up a 
better antenna. You'd regularly have failed recordings (or recordings 
so bad you can't watch them) and I've personal experience of that 
with Channel 5* in our pre digital-switchover days.

Just my opinion.

* Pre switchover, C5 was transmitted in analogue at reduced power 
(compared to the "main 4 channels") because there wasn't space in the 
spectrum to transmit it at full power without causing interference. 
When digital (DVB-T, aka Freeview in the UK), the mux carrying C5 was 
also transmitted at reduced power and for double whammy also used 
QAM64 instead of QAM16 which made it carry more channels but less 
robustly. Combined with a less than stunning antenna and a good 
distance from the transmitter, we could watch both the analogue and 
digital versions start to degrade about an hour before sunset in 
summer (and with high pressure) and only recover about an hour or two 
after sunset.

Now my main transmitter is all digital, the power has been turned up 
and we get a (mostly) usable signal.
-- 
Simon Hobson

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