[mythtv-users] PCHDTV-5500 Sound and Contrast on ubuntu

[Nathan Smith]

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006, Brad Templeton wrote:

<snip>

> QAM and ATSC are just variant modulation schemes.  The end result is the
> same, think of it like a file download over the air, not a capture.
>
> Obviously a card like the pchdtv is primarily for that.  While they can
> capture NTSC, they're not considered particularly good choices for
> that.   Rather, people get the cards for digital TV and figure they might
> as well have them as an extra analog card since they have the ability to
> do it.  They have no compression hardware on them, so capture takes
> CPU (of course any HD capable system has more than enough CPU.)

The quality I get for NTSC on my 5500 rivals anything that I've seen on
regular TV, so I'm really interested how great ATSC will be.

> Personally, I use my pchdtv for OTA rather than QAM.  There can be
> some issues with occasional reception dropouts, but OTA you will
> find more channels than the cable companies give you, including SD
> versions of the HD channels (allowing much more compact recordings
> of SD programs which are upscaled on the HD channels)   Some people
> have reported cable companies reducing the data rate on their QAM
> feeds, though QAM-256 does have 38 mb/s data rate and thus can
> handle twice what an ATSC channel does, there are reports of people
> seeing cable companies stuff in more channels.

Interesting.. I'm going to buy an HD antenna soon. Are you using a 3000-
or a 5500?

Nate