pcHDTV HD-5500

[Colin McGregor]

--- Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>
wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 21, 2007 at 10:46:34AM -0400, Colin
> McGregor wrote:
> > I am looking at upgrades to my MythTV box, and one
> of
> > the topics I am looking at is getting an HDTV
> card. In
> > particular I am interested in the pcHDTV HD-5500
> PCI
> > tuner card (which does support Linux (in fact
> Windows
> > is not officially supported :-) ) . So, I have
> some
> > questions:
> > 
> > - Anyone with experience using this card locally?
> > - Anyone know of a local source for this card (I
> have
> > yet to find one)?
> > - Would there be any interest in putting together
> a
> > bulk order with several people getting together in
> > order to get a volume discount on these cards?
> 
> I am tempted to get one, but on the other hand
> putting up an OTA antenna
> seems like a pain, and other than the time shift
> channels on rogers
> cable you wouldn't get much with the QAM tuner since
> most things are
> encrypted (like all the local HDTV channels for
> example).

As I understand it the HD-5500 offers a number of
options, none of them ideal.

- You can use the card as a regular analog BT-8xx
series TV tuner (which is seriously ugly, it means
your paying over $100 (US) for a poor performing type
of tuner card the likes of which can be found locally
for under $40).

- Just connect it to you regular local cable co.
(i.e.: Rogers), where you can get the regular analog
channels and a handful of digital channels, in analog
channel quality.

- Connect the card to an HDTV antenna (either the
likes of rabbit ear style in-house table top antenna
or the big external tower antenna), modest number of
channels, but all in (excellent) HD quality.

- Connect the card to a Rogers cable HD (or other
firm's satellite HD) boxes. Excellent quality, lots of
channels, but extra $ on a monthly basis and you have
to sort out how to control the external box from
MythTV (can be done, but it can become very messy).

So, interesting topic and one I want to keep an eye,
as CURRENT word is that come Feb. 2009 (read just
after the next US presidential election...) analog TV
will disappear from US airwaves. How long after that
Canada will follow suit, and further how long after
that the cable companies will want to drop analog TV
support all makes for some interesting questions...

So, those of us interested in MythTV type boxes will
need to pay attention to Linux supported HD tuner
cards (of which the HD-5500 currently appears to be
the "gold" standard).


Colin McGregor
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