[mythtv-users] Beginner DVB-T questions

[Robin Hill]

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.

> (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
-- 
     ___        
    ( ' }     |       Robin Hill        <myth at robinhill.me.uk>  |
   / / )      | Little Jim says ....                            |
  // !!       |      "He fallen in de water !!"                 |
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