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

[Steven Adeff]

On 4/2/06, Kichigai Mentat <kichigai at comcast.net> wrote:
> 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?

Well, Echostar uses a card encryption system but they use the DVB-S
standard. DirecTV uses something more proprietary than that, I don't
know the specifics, but its not DVB-S.
As for the FTA stuff, its mostly local channels from what I
understand. Check www.lyngsat.com
It may also be possible with a card reader and a DVB-S card to access
the Echostar satelites?


> > 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).

Yea, depending on where you are, some ComCast areas block firewire
channels with 5C some don't, but I'll assume they're all moving in
that direction. I get my HDTV channels off their cable line though,
its only the OTA stuff, but at least I don't have to worry about an
antenna.

I may be switching to DirecTV soon though, I'm moving into a Condo
with a friend and we'd love to get the DirectKick (MLS) and Sunday
Ticket(NFL) packages which only DirecTV has. So we'll probably end up
with a couple SD tuners running into a PVR-500 and a DirecTV HD-DVR
for the non-OTA HD channels that we can't feed into MythTV. We'll
prbly still have a ComCast account for cablemodem so I can continue to
use QAM for my ATSC cards.

The other option is to subscribe to DishNetwork with DVB-S and a card
reader and see if its possible with linux and see how to go about
getting all the local channel feeds they broadcast, I had a friend
that hacked them with their regular tv boxes and was able to get
enough local channels that he could watch any US sporting event that
way. No HD though, the DVB-S cards don't support the stream method
they use for their HD channels from what I hear.

--
Steve