Tom Metro wrote:
> I'm looking to supplement my two analog tuner PVR-500 MythTV setup with
> a new tuner to avoid conflicts. I figured while I'm upgrading I'd like
> to add a card capable of digital reception, specifically QAM - not
> because I'm interested in HDTV, but simply to receive SD to improve on
> the steadily degrading quality of my analog cable (clearly they're
> ignoring that aspect of the cable plant these days). I'm also aware that
> most cable companies carry not much more than the broadcast channels in
> unencrypted QAM, but that'll be good enough to resolve conflicts, as at
> least one channel will be a broadcast channel.
>
> So what I'm wondering, given the way the MVP hardware is sensitive to
> the video format, what QAM digital tuners have others successfully used
> with MythTV and mvpmc without going through the hassle of transcoding
> recordings?
>
> -Tom
The digital cards typically take the exact OTA (or QAM) digital
data stream and put that on disk. Most of the digital streams are
well beyond what the MVP hardware can handle. The 480P/480I can
be displayed with the MVP and it is very fast to just transcode the
audio and leave the video as it. On the 720P/1080i, my 3.2Ghz Pentium,
can do just a bit better than real time using mplayer to transcode. I
do have a script that is mostly working that will figure out if
something can play on the mvp hardware and will do the minimal
transcoding needed to make it workable. On the 480p it only transcodes
the audio which happens many times faster than transcoding the video
also.
If some of the QAM stuff on your cable system is just 480P then redoing
the audio (assuming the video is mpeg2) is really easy and fast. I
don't think the card actually matters on the data stream being
compatible as they all take exactly what is coming in and use it, I
don't believe any of the consumer boards have enough CPU to transcode
anything themselves.
I am using a pchdtv HD5500, it seems to be a decent card and has
good linux support.
Roger
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