[mythtv-users] Preparing for HDTV in 2005

[Brian Foddy]

Since 2005 is only a bit over 4 months away, the the looming 
broadcast flag rules are set to take effect (in the US), I've been making a 
concerted effort to brush off my pcHDTV card and shake out
some of the remaining issues with using this card in mythtv.

I've had the card for about 9 months, and while I could always get
it working, it never worked well enough to fully trust.  So I just
got done upgrading my antenna and cabling, and my reception 
reliability has improved considerably.  My Zenith HD-STB now shows
nearly full scale signals on most channels, and the pcHDTV signal
program shows most channels in the 89-92 range.  The stdout from
the backend shows lower numbers (75-86%).  Are they measuring
different things?

These improvements have increased the reliability of my HD mythtv,
but still not enough really make it hands-off and ready to run for weeks.
I still get a lot of 15 second (game over) errors, after which I have to 
restart the backend, or other similar hangs.  Some of these may be caused
by interruptions in the broadcast itself.  Just last night while watching the
Olympics in HD, my NBC signal dropped twice for 45 minutes or more
(just after the Future of TV commercial :); don't know if it the outage was
local (MSP area) or national.

Point is, I'd like to see some more discussion of the state of the
pcHDTV card in Mythtv; the good and the not-so-good.  
As 2005 get closer, I will likely consider purchasing several more cards to 
future-proof HDTV in Myth as much as I can.  It would just give
me a warmer feeling if I really knew how many others are really
getting along in real-world usage.

And are there any plans or thoughts on how Mythtv and the pcHDTV
might change after 2005?

Might I make a related suggestion?  How about a Mythtv HD only
mail list?  The main users list with 100+ messages can make it
difficult to really concentrate on HD only issues.

Brian