[mythtv-users] Possibly a "dumb" question

[Brian Wood]

On Friday 05 February 2010 09:14:58 am Eric Sharkey wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 10:55 AM, Robert McNamara
> 
> <robert.mcnamara at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Why can't it just stream the exact file to the TV and let the TV tuner
> >> receive/decode/render/interlace/deinterlace it. In other words hand it
> >> to the TV exactly as it were broadcast.
> >
> > That would require an QAM modulator

Actually an ATSC modulator, though the two are very similar, and the same 
device could probably do both, perhaps with a firmware change.

> 
> That's not strictly true.  There are a very small number of models of
> TV that accept firewire input.  (It was with this in mind that the FCC
> originally mandated support for firewire on STB's, with the thought
> that many more TVs would support this than do today.)
> 
> If you happen to have a TV with firewire input, it would in theory be
> possible to do exactly this with standard PC hardware.
> 
> On the flip side, this would prevent the use of features like
> time-stretch or even the overlay of menus and progress bars, fast
> forward, commercial skip, etc. etc.

Yeah, it's probably not practical, and getting an STB with working firewire is 
a non-trivial task. My local cable company simply says "Sorry, we don't have 
any of those".

Until and unless ATSC/QAM modulators become commodity items, we are stuck with 
the status quo.