[mythtv-users] OTA/DTV tuner-card related questions, recommendations
James Miller
gajs-f0el at dea.spamcon.org
Thu Jan 20 17:03:28 UTC 2011
Thanks for your informative response, Justin.
> And more. That 500GB drive will fill up quicker than you imagine.
To clarify, I don't watch/record very much television--only 1 hr. per
weekday and maybe 3 or 4 on Sat./Sun. I've gotten by just fine so far with
a 160 GB drive mounted under /var/lib/mythtv and an 80 GB main hard drive.
So I'm thinking of making the 160 GB drive the main drive and mounting the
500 GB one under /var/lib/mythtv (for a total of 660 GB). Anyway,
nothing's set in stone on that and I'm not dead set against adding a
larger drive.
> Yes you can. Your system, if not misconfigured, should scale the video
> down to the resolution your display uses. When I added my first DTV
> tuner (older Air2PC card), I was still running my system at 320i/p (MSI
> 6200 AGP). The video subsystem scaled the 1080i/720p images down to fit
> the screen and the difference in visual quality was noticeable.
I've wondered, since starting this thread, whether my machine might be
doing this sort of scaling. Some of the programming I get through my cable
connection does say it's available in HD. My video card is a GeForce2
MX/MX 400 (AGP). I do have another, better card I was thinking of throwing
into this machine.
By the way, you say "the difference in visual quality was noticeable." Did
you mean _was_ or _was not_ noticeable?
> Over The Air Digital Television does /not/ mean high definition, it just
> means the signal contains digital information vs analogue.
>
> I still have some OTA channels in my area that broadcast SD video
> streams (one station sends out both on different sub-channels).
>
> And as I mentioned above with my system when I added/converted to
> digital, I was watching HD broadcasts on my old SD projection set, no
> transcoding needed.
Thanks for those clarifications. I was presuming something like that might
be the case. Looks like I may have rubbed someone the wrong way by
expressing aesthetic ambivalence about viewing HD content.
> The SiliconDust HD HomeRun is a stand alone device that sits on the
> network. They have two models in production for the ATSC (primarily US)
> market, a single tuner and a dual tuner. And with their redesigned
> tuners announced (much smaller footprint), the original design may be
> dropping in price. MSRP on a new dual tuner, older beige design, is
> $149.99 US dollars, with the single tuner at $79.99 (street prices are
> usually lower). They occasionally go on sale as well. Up front, it may
> seem to be a bit more expensive than a PCI/PCIe tuner, but if one looks
> at what the HDHR offers, it's the better bang for the buck.
>
> And frankly, after having dealt with PCI tuners and then getting the
> HDHR, I wonder why I didn't get one sooner.
>
> They Just Freaking Work(tm).
>
> The only fiddling I've ever had to do with mine in the few years I've
> had it was for firmware upgrades (and that was only because I read
> reports that it helped reception). I could have left it at the original
> firmware level and been perfectly happy with it's performance.
Again, thanks for the helpful pointers. I did, after reading last night's
response to my query, take a look at the HDHR. I think the model of which
you're speaking was priced at $105 on newegg.
I'm not too hot on adding a new device to my network, since all four wired
ports on my wifi router are presently occupied--meaning I'd have to add a
switch or something. And yes, like my other outdated equipment this is a
wireless G router, so I doubt its wireless throughput would suffice for
the device of which we're speaking--presuming that device is capable of
connecting via wifi. As may also be evident, my network and devices--even
the wired side--are not capable of gigabit speeds: will traditional 10/100
provide sufficient throughput for the HDHR?
> Assuming that I am correct and there isn't a card that will do this, my
> opinion on your choices are[1]:
>
> * Upgrade the system to something more powerful
Something I've definitely considered lately, but I'd like to keep nursing
along this old system for as long as it proves reasonable.
> * Upgrade the video to something that supports MPEG2 acceleration (you
> didn't list your current kit, so I can't say if what you have now is
> enough)
Does the information I gave above about my video card provide the
necessary data for determining this?
> * Transcode the stored video file into a lower resolution
Let's see if, based on other factors we're discussing now, this will
actually be needed.
> This assumes that your system can't playback a 1080i MPEG2 file without
> issue. I'd try it first. You can find 1080i clips around online, just
> do a search.
Good thought. I'll try that now and report the results in a later posting.
Thanks again for your helpful and thoughtful input, Justin. It's much
appreciated.
James
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