[GTALUG] ot: sort of, is it really impossible to get real cable anymore?

[Evan Leibovitch]

Synopsis: I think you've just re-complicated something that took a while in
this thread to simplify.
And buying a new TV is not considered an option, the roughly $100 solution
being proposed is expensive enough.

On Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 11:19 AM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <
talk at gtalug.org> wrote:


> General concern: the complex chain of devices has many points of failure.
> Getting it to work might be difficult.  Keeping it working might be
> difficult.
>

The consensus as I read it so far was:

1. Off-the-air antenna
2. ATSC digital tuner
3. Karen's existing TV
4. Coaxial cable from tuner to TV

That's all.

The antenna has no moving parts and does not even need external power if
its optional amplifier is not required.
The ATSC tuner has one cable in, one cable out, and power.
Operation will be no more complex than the Bell box that Karen is trying to
replace (but not much less complex either).


> General concern: many components these days expect navigation of on-screen
> menus.
>

Yes, but so do the original TV and the Bell Fibe box. That is a challenge
that can't be bypassed in order to achieve what is being asked for.

General concern: some HDMI signals (eg. from Rogers or Bell) are "protected"
> by HDCP.


I have no idea how this got injected into the topic at hand. Using an
antenna to receive off-the-air broadcasting completely bypasses Rogers and
Bell.
As Karen's TV does not have an HDMI-in this is a complete non-issue.
The connection from the ATSC box from Karen's TV can be done either by
coaxial cable (and both devices will need to agree on Channel 3 or 4 using
physical switches) or by an RCA-to-RCA video cable.

As for copy protection ... under this scheme there is none. The ATSC video
adapter even has a PVR function that enables one to set a timer and it will
store any channel's feed to a user-supplied USB drive. Unfortunately, the
setup and operation of this is all done using the remote control and
on-screen prompts.

- Evan
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gtalug.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20231130/9c2f1686/attachment.html>