[mythtv-users] Beginner DVB-T questions

Henrik Gammelmark mythtv at geemark.com
Mon Dec 18 17:06:14 UTC 2006


Robin Hill wrote:
> On Mon Dec 18, 2006 at 03:35:57PM +0100, Henrik Gammelmark wrote:
>   
>> Hi all
>>
>> I have been using MythTV with only analog tuners so far, but consider 
>> making the switch to DVB-T, and in this regard I have some questions I 
>> hope you can answer me:
>>
>> (1) How does it work in practice? You need a digital tuner card, of 
>> course, but what about decoding the signal? At least with danish 
>> StofaTV, you need to purchase a card with a chip on it, in order to 
>> decode/decrypt the signal. I guess I need a card reader? Or perhaps even 
>> one for each tuner card?
>>
>>     
> From what I can tell, in most places, DVB-T is unencrypted (it's usually
> only DVB-C and DVB-S that are encrypted).  If it requires decrypting
> then you'll need to either hunt out a supported card with a hardware
> CAM, or find a set-top box which will feed out the unencrypted signal.
> I've never looked into these so I can't suggest anything.
>   
I just looked through the technical docs of my supplier again - I see 
that it is in fact not DVB-T, but DVB-C.
Hauppauge does not seem to have any cards supporting this? :(
Any suggestions?
>   
>> (3) How does hardware encoding of digital video work? I hope it is not 
>> compressed to lossy MPEG2, as the Hauppauge PVR cards do. Can the card 
>> output some lossless video/audio format that MythTV can store for 
>> prefect replay, or is special software required to do this?
>>
>>     
> The incoming signal is dumped directly to disk - there's no encoding
> needed.  This is usually MPEG2, though the BBC are doing trials with
> h.264 in the UK.
>
>   
>> (4) If I have both analog and digital tuners in my box, can MythTV 
>> abstract away from that, by seeing them as having the same channels? For 
>> instance, if a show was scheduled for the digital tuner, but a conflict 
>> arises, can it move it to the analog tuner, or does MythTVv see that as 
>> two seperate channels, because one is digital or one is analog?
>>
>>     
> Yes - if you give the channels the same callsigns and names, them Myth
> will recognise them as being the same channel.  If you then give the
> tuners different priorities then you can have it fall back to analogue
> only when the digital tuner is in use.
>
> Cheers,
>         Robin
>   


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list