[mythtv-users] HD PVR 2 and mythtv

[Devin Heitmueller]

Hi Stephen,

I've worked with a number of these products.  A few useful notes follow:

> A possible alternative to an HD PVR 2 is a nice gadget that I just
> learned about, called a digital modulator or HDMI modulator.  This
> takes video (HDMI, component or composite) and turns it into a DVB-T
> or ATSC stream and injects it into an RF aerial connection.  For HDMI,
> the conversion to DVB-T/ATSC packets is apparently lossless.

These are not really "lossless" in any sense of the word.  The way it
works is it takes uncompressed HDMI in and encodes it to MPEG2/H.264
(which is a lossy operation).  Most have configurable encoding
bitrates similar to what you would find on an HDPVR.  Also bear in
mind that they're almost all going to do only MPEG2 and not H.264,
since the target audience is televisions which typically don't have
the ability to receive H.264 broadcasts in the US (e.g. to be
compatible with traditional 8VSB and ClearQAM broadcasts).

Some of the products *can* take bitstream audio and pass it through
without re-encoding (assuming the bitstream audio is AC-3), but others
will simply avoid the process entirely by only supporting PCM audio.

And, as Gary mentioned a couple of emails prior), these devices will
typically only support HDMI if HDCP is not in use.  That's why almost
all of the ones you will find which support HDMI will also have HD
component inputs.

There are some reasonably priced options out there in this market if
you really want to go this route (depending on what you consider
"reasonable").  The ZeeveeBox 180 I picked up two years ago only ran
me $525.00.

Devin

-- 
Devin J. Heitmueller - Kernel Labs
http://www.kernellabs.com