Video Server

[pkahle at pobox.com (Peter Kahle)]

On Dec 7, 2005, at 6:17 PM, Robert La Ferla wrote:
>
> My problems with the pcHDTV HD-3000 card are when viewing Comcast  
> analog cable tv.  Like I said, I have to run an audio patch cable  
> and digitize the audio.  It looks GREAT though using tvtime.  I  
> just can't record anything with MythTV.  You mentioned that you are  
> using RCN digital cable.  Do you know if I could use Comcast  
> digital cable w/MythTV?  Last time I checked, it didn't but it may  
> have changed.  However, I had Comcast digital cable and HDTV for a  
> few months a year and half ago.  The quality was terrible.  It was  
> much worse than analog cable (pixelation, drop outs, slow channel  
> changing) and to make things worse Comcast put banner ads on each  
> channel.  The HDTV selection consisted of 4-5 channels with  
> repetitive content that wasn't always HDTV.  And that content had  
> similar pixelation and drop out problems.  I didn't think it was  
> worth an addition $20-$30/month to alpha test their junk.  I am  
> also interested in any success stories with Dish Network and MythTV.

You should be able to check and see if you're able to tune digital  
channels pretty easily. I used two separate programs to get a list of  
channels to try, and then it just took some trial and error. First I  
used the dvbscan program under the dvb-apps package, though I'm not  
sure where I got that. That gives me a list of frequencies to try.  
Then I used the dvbrecord program mentioned in this message (though I  
can't find the actual program. I have the tar still if you can't find  
it either): http://www.opensubscriber.com/message/mythtv- 
dev at mythtv.org/1574019.html to get a capture of the channels I was  
able to see from dvbscan. I then decided to scan using dvbrecord,  
which found some more channels. This was a long term, high disk-usage  
thing, but I automated it slightly using a simple python program to  
call mpeg3dump on all the saved files and report the ones that have  
audio and video. I never got around to having it delete the unwanted  
captures (ones without video and audio), or moving the good ones into  
a subfolder to make it easier. Or having it capture and scan only  
those files from a frequencies list (as provided in the /util/scan/ 
atsc directory under dvb-apps.), which I may do next time I get  
around to updating it. I plan to run it every couple of months to see  
what channels get added. If you'd like a copy of that, let me know,  
too. It's quick and dirty, but it works for me, and simplifies life  
immensely.

As I think I mentioned, my signal strength when it gets to the card  
is really weak. (1 4:1 splitter, at least one 2:1, and two 1:1  
connectors (not sure what loss they have) and as many as three more  
2:1 splitters behind the walls where the furniture makes it too hard  
to check, if the installer was true to form.) Rewiring's  
unfortunately not an option, so I've got an amplifier on the way.  
Hopefully that'll get me a constant signal and I'll be able to do  
some more testing. The signal was OK before I went from a 2:1 to a  
4:1 to hook up the analog card. But I'm seeing similar symptoms to  
what you were, plus a weird audio echo on otherwise fine looking  
recordings, that slow the recording down during playback. I'm afraid  
the slow channel changing is just a fact of life with digital  
content, as I've seen it with OTA-digital, digital cable to my card,  
and digital cable to my set-top box. Does satellite do this? I was  
assuming it was just taking a while to acquire a lock or get a header  
packet or something.

On the subject of cables, I bought a S-Video cable this weekend to go  
from my Epia MII-1200 to my Panasonic EDTV, and was very disappointed  
to see it working fine, but only black and white. So be careful with  
S-Video, as this apparently happens sometimes.

P