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These things are great, but unfortunately, it looks like they're discontinuing them. It's looking doubtful that we'll see 64-bit WinXP drivers, much less Linux support. Too bad, because HDTV on widescreen notebooks looks great. 1680x1050 res is close enough to 1080i, and 1280x800 is the same width as 720p.

Sasem's site has a notice posted about the discontinuation, if anyone reads Korean.

Of course, you really need to be able to receive broadcast TV for HDTV tuner boxes/cards to be useful. Unencrypted digital cable TV channels are viewable, but broadcast works best. Plus it's free. I get better HDTV reception than analog TV broadcast.

I bought one of these recently. So far, I like it. It does a good job with analog cable too (unencrypted digital cable channels work too but over-the-air is looks better). The worst I can say about it is that there aren't any Linux drivers, AFAIK at least. I save HDTV shows to my Linux server. HDTVtoMPEG2 and related tools work on the saved streams.

Standard def is so last century ;-).

You can find product on the OnAirUSB-HDTV there and and buy from www.copperbox.com here

http://www.usbhdtv.com/

You can buy one in the US at:

http://www.copperbox.com/lite/sasem.php/

Avsforum thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&t hreadid=373490&highlight=sasem/

For those that don't have a free PCI slot, this is the way to go. Once the highest of powers grants me permission, I'll be grabbing one myself.

JA

Actually, I did run across a HDTV USB2.0 tuner but I don't know much about it.

The biggest problem right now with the HDTV stand-alone recorder boxes and computer HDTV tuners is that they cannot record from digital cable. Digital Cable uses QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) which means that it generates 4 bits out of one baud for encoding HDTV channels. Cracking that is the holy grail of HDTV recording and there are many users out there willing to put up lots of cash as an incentive for this happen. The point is over-the-air (OTA) HDTV is unencrypted and can be recorded for the time being using both stand-alone and computer equipment. Both satellite-based and digital cable-based HDTV use either QAM64 or QAM256 which cannot be tuned well by any equipment out today. There was a Dish 5000 reciever that could be hacked to output HDTV digital streams over firewire but the modulation on the network has changed so the box cannot decrypt the streams anymore for output. I would suggest waiting for the time being.

To qualify the above statement, DViCO makes the Fusion HDTV QAM PCI card for desktops which unofficially claims to tune QAM256 but it still has problems with QAM64. Link A simple seach at the AVS Forums should provide more information on current issues with the card. Lastly, for you laptop PC owners out there, Sasem makes a USB HDTV tuner which claims to tune QAM but is really only useful for OTA HDTV at the moment. Link ATI will be releasing an HDTV card soon but I am not aware if it has any QAM tuning abilities.

I have never heard of a PCMCIA version (the tuners are physically too large to fit in a PCMCIA form, you would still need some external dongle + antenna).

But, there is a USB 2.0 version, The Sasem OnAir USB HDTV device: http://www.usbhdtv.com/

I have heard mixed reviews of the software, but I have no direct experience with it. Of course, it's Windows only, so it is a no-go for my PowerBook anyway.

http://www.usbhdtv.com/ is a better choice.