[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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