[mythtv-users] Semi-OT: DVB in USA?

[Kichigai Mentat]

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On Apr 2, 2006, at 14.18, Steven Adeff wrote:

> On 4/2/06, Kichigai Mentat <kichigai at comcast.net> wrote:
>> Hello. I've been looking around the mailing list, and on the
>> internet, and I'm wondering, what's the story with DVB in the United
>> States? According to a map I found on the Wikipedia, DVB-T is
>> supported in the US, but I can't find anything else to back that up.
>> Finding a US version of a DVB tuner is rather interesting (though I
>> don't suppose they would be regionalized). However, I have heard a
>> few US residents on the list mention that they had experience with
>> DVB (don't know if it was while they were outside the US, or what).
>>
>> Does anyone know what the story with this is?
>>
>> Thanks for all the help.
>
> well, our OTA HDTV is captured using devices that use the DVB driver
> system.

I thought I had heard something about that, but I wasn't sure.

> Also Dish Network and Bell (Echostar companies in the US and
> Canada) use DVB-S, as well as there are a few other FTA DVB-S
> satelites receivable here.

Now that's surprising. Given the track records of satellite companies  
around here, I'd thought they would have gone proprietary. I'm a  
little surprised about DVB-S. I know that there are a few FTA  
satellite signals in the US (mostly uplink feeds from local access, I  
hear), but are any of them worth the investment in a satellite and a  
DVB-S card?

> I don't know of any DVB-T stations in the
> U.S. personally, but I've never really looked.

Well, aside from DVB-C, this would be my big thing. I don't own a  
satellite, and we get digital cable. I don't think we're going to be  
changing from digi-cable to satellite (no matter how much I hate  
ComCast. Then again, I'm not paying the bills, and there are a LOT of  
trees around here), so using DVB-T would be a possible experiment for  
me.

> I don't believe there
> are any DVB-C sources in the U.S. though.

Yeah, I didn't expect there would be any. Our cable companies are  
kind of "mine!" about that kind of stuff. Pity, because I hate the  
quality of analog cable around here (ComCast ran a line in our house,  
and split it four times without any signal boosters. I invested in  
one, but some channels still come in really poorly) and I'm not too  
sure if I want to jump into the mess of getting a digital cable box  
for the Myth system, and dealing with LIRC/Serial communications.  
That mess gets worse if I decide I want to add an additional tuner  
(which is something I'm considering, actually).

>
> --
> Steve

Thanks for the quick reply!
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