[mythtv] HDTV Reception (was: DVB Driver for the pcHDTV HD-3000)

[Brad Templeton]

On Fri, Feb 04, 2005 at 06:57:54AM -0500, Cory Papenfuss wrote:
> >Expect some of both, and this is still at least a year away, but you
> >probably will eventually need VHF.  I decided to put up another antenna
> >when that happens, as I might be on QAM by then.
> 	Althought possible, from what I've read it highly unlikely that 
> broadcast HDTV will ever be anything but 8-VSB.  There's a whole lot of 

Ah, I was not clear.  What I mean is, that by the time I have to worry
about having to receive a lot of DTV over VHF, it is likley I will have
switched to QAM -- but from cable of course, not over the air.   Ie. when
my tuner card becomes able to do QAM.

> >Since channel 12 is high enough, and it's close, my UHF yagi manages to
> >tune it anyway.
> >
> 	Actually, channel 12 is quite distant from UHF channels... they're 
> not contiguous:
> 
> VHF 2-6:   55-83 MHz
> VHF 7-13:  175-211 MHz
> UHF 14-69: 471-801 MHz
> 
> 	If the signals' strong enough, you can pick up stuff with a coat 
> hanger, too... (and that's an uncalibrated coat hanger to boot!) ... :)

Which is what's happening.   I know that channel 12 is not in the UHF
band, but it's the high end of the VHF band 2, and thus high enough to
get some resonance in a UHF antenna.   Anyway, point is that in my location
we're lucky enough that a yagi pointed at San Francisco (36 miles away) can
also pick up channel 12 19 miles away in the opposite direction, both are
line of site to mountains.   Many people on the peninsula have the
same geometry, but of course this is mostly a lucky accident. 

If I didn't have this, I would probably have played with combining a tight
UHF bowtie matrix and a VHF tuned for just channel 12 if I could do that
without too much multipath.   Or switched tuner cards to the new one that
does QAM.  (QAM from the pchdtv-3000 is also rumoured to be soon.)

Though right now for unknown reasons, Comcast does not include UPN-HD
in their unencrypted QAM feed.  Of course the only show I watched on that,
Enterprise, was just cancelled.