[mythtv-users] pcHDTV 5500 - NTSC and QAM?
Steven Sartorius
ssartor at bellatlantic.net
Tue Mar 6 01:15:11 UTC 2007
On Mar 5, 2007, at 18:23, Glenn Harris wrote:
> On 3/4/07, Steven Sartorius <ssartor at bellatlantic.net> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm looking at upgrading my current Myth setup (SD only, version .18)
>> to something capable of handling HD. I'm a Comcast analog cable
>> subscriber and recently picked up an external HD tuner (a Samsung
>> DTB-
>> H260F) to see what I could get via QAM off my coax. There's enough
>> unencrypted HD content (all the local OTA channels, DiscoveryHD,
>> Universal HD) that I'd like to have the option to record in either HD
>> or SD. A little research turned up the pcHDTV 5500 -- a QAM capable
>> card with both ATSC and NTSC tuners. My question is (of course!) how
>> well does it work in Myth? Specifically, is anyone using the card to
>> record both HD and SD (not at the same time of course)? If so, how
>> does this work? Do you specify two different inputs to Myth? Does
>> the card show up as having two different tuners? What's the quality
>> of SD capture? Any insight into the nuts and bolts of how the 5500
>> handles both QAM and SD would be much appreciated...
>>
>> thanks,
>>
>> Steve
>
> I have the pchdtv 5500. It works great, and is easy to setup.
> However, my understanding is that it can only be configured as a
> digital (atsc/qam) or analog card when the drivers are loaded. So you
> either load up the DVB (digital) or analog drivers. I suppose you
> could work up elaborate system to unload and load drivers depending on
> which channel you are recording from. Seems overly complicated.
> And as someone else mentioned, it does not do on-board mpeg encoding,
> so you have to do that in software for analog channels.
>
> I am assuming by 'SD' you mean analog. You can get both SD (standard
> definition) and HD channels over QAM and the pchdtv can record both of
> those just fine through the DVB setup.
>
> Other than that, I will also throw my support behind the HDHR.
> Very nice.
>
> --Glenn
A couple of people have suggested the HDHR and I did look at it when
formulating my upgrade plans. My main beef with it is that it's yet
another box (along with a hub) to have attached to my machine --
thereby lowering the WAF! My goal is to have a single piece of
computer gear sitting next to my receiver/tuner/dvd player all
underneath my flat panel screen. The machine I'm looking at (a
Pundit P1-AH2) has 2 PCI slots -- I'd like to put a capture card in
one and a wireless network card in the other. Trying to get away
from a lot of clutter.... :)
thanks,
Steve
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