TV Antennas or MythTV and HDTV in Toronto

[Colin McGregor]

--- Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 04, 2007 at 12:42:46PM -0400, Colin
> McGregor wrote:
> > I am looking for a good, inexpensive and tough
> outdoor
> > TV antenna for use with my MythTV box.
> > 
> > I am on Rogers cable, which for the most part I am
> > basically happy with. The problems with Rogers
> show up
> > when it comes to my first stabs with HDTV using a
> > pcHDTV-5500 tuner card in my MythTV box. Up until
> > quite recently I gather Roger's offered SOME
> digital
> > channels unencrypted (but not at high definition).
> So,
> > to get any sort of usable digital signal from
> Rogers
> > you now need to rent a cable box (something I can
> not
> > cost justify and I don't want the pain of sorting
> out
> > the issues of having the Myth box control the
> cable
> > box).
> > 
> > The folks doing KnoppMyth (the distro I use on my
> > MythTV box) have (at least for now) dropped analog
> > support for pcHDTV-5500 (due problems with the
> current
> > driver). So, to see anything via that pcHDTV-5500
> card
> > I need a digital signal.
> 
> By digital do they mean ATSC or QAM only?  By analog
> do the mean NTSC or
> all things using an antenna?  I guess they mean NTSC
> isn't stable.

ATSC is the standard for over the air HDTV broadcasts,
the QAM standards (and I am aware of 3 QAM standards
QAM-64, QAM-128 and QAM-256) are used by the cable
companies for HDTV signals. I am NOT concerned with
NTSC-M (the analog TV standard in North America plus
parts of Asia and South America).

So, yes the card supports ATSC and the unencrypted QAM
signals. The card can support NTSC-M, BUT due to
driver problems the current version of KnoppMyth have
dropped that feature (hopefully to return in a later
version...).  

> > Using a plain old fashion rabbit ear style antenna
> I
> > was able to get CBC-HD from the ground floor (CBC
> has
> > the most powerful HDTV transmitter in Toronto).
> > Shifting the antenna up to the attic, and
> attaching an
> > amplifier added CTV-HD and some of the Buffalo
> based
> > HDTV channels. Next I tried building one of the
> > antennas described here:
> > 
> >   www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9613
> 
> Nifty.
> 
> > If anything performance was slightly worse than
> the
> > rabbit ear/amp combo.. So, what I am looking for
> now
> > is an inexpensive commercial antenna that I could
> > mount outdoors and increase the number of HDTV
> > channels I can reliably get over the air. I say
> > reliably because, I can get the three Buffalo PBS
> > stations in HDTV, I periodically (like every few
> > seconds) get pixelization and audio drop-outs.
> Further
> > the pcHDTV card driver starts acting squirrelly
> when
> > faced with a bad signal...
> 
> I keep meaning to try playing with an HDTV tuner
> card and an antenna.  I
> might have more incentive if I actually had an HDTV
> to watch it on.

Well, HDTV looks VERY nice when displayed on my old
20" CRT monitor :-) . Bottom line, for the cost of a
Linux supported HDTV card and some sort of antenna you
can get your toe into HDTV...

Colin McGregor

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