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Digital Cable HDTV Tuner Card Reviewed
Jack Kolesar of AMDPower writes "We have posted a review of a PC HDTV Tuner card that can receive QAM (Digital Cable) signals along with traditional 8VSB signals. This appears to be the first PC Card which can accomplish this task. Further, the software also comes with a utility to downsample HDTV content to DVD and DivX. "
Including some of the HDTV samples... I wonder how much I'll get done before they're slashdotted.
"Conclusion
The Fusion HDTV III QAM can be seen online at specialty stores like Digital Connection for around $170.00. This is around $100.00 cheaper than a similar hardware decoder card by MyHD. However, I'm certain that the MyHD or AccessDTV cards will deliver a far more stable image. What the Fusion has going for it is QAM reception and the included DVD convector software. It also functions with TitanTV for scheduled recording. If you are concerned about possible jerkiness and dropped frames (I assume you are) you should first try out the demo from the DVico website. ATI's card appears to be a software-based card as well from what I can tell. This card retails for $199.00 but I have not had the opportunity to test it. For the Linux buffs out there, check out PCHDTV when you get a chance. This company offers a software-based HDTV Tuner Card similar to the original Fusion I design which is exclusively for Linux. It uses the Xine engine for the HD decoding. Fun Stuff."
-- "I'm not a religious man, but if you're up there, save me Superman..."
Unable to select database
What a great review - now where can I get my hands on this thing? :)
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
techies already don't get enough exercise, now I won't have to even swival my chair to look from my monitor to my TV. Isn't there a lobbying group for the the support of tech people not gaining any more weight? Where is my representation? Where is my protection from myself?
Nuttles
Saved by Grace
Prior to the instant server death? Or know the product name since its not referenced in the summary, so I can look for something on it?
"Would you, could you, with a goat?" Dr Seuss
I was really interested in reading this article, as I've been looking for something to do this, and with only 4 comments posted, this is what I get:
/home/virtual/site27/fst/var/www/html/mainfile.php 4 on line 19
Warning: mysql_pconnect(): Too many connections in
Unable to select database
Now that AMDPower's servers have melted into a pool of molten plastic and silicon on the datacenter floor, I hope you're happy!
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
It's all fun and games until you delete something important because you were watching the Olsen twins make out with each other in the always-on-top TV window in the corner of your screen.
from the dept.
Sounds 007-isch doesn't it?
[offtopic]
But actualy, is this story, like many the past week, actualy -on- topic?
[less offtopic]
Hivemind harvest in progress..
What is really needed in this space is a decoder card that also has a CableCARD slot. I don't care whether the CableCARD is inside the case or has an external slot, it doesn't really matter to me.
The fact of the matter is that most QAM signals on digital cable are scrambled. Previously, you had to have a set-top box with descrambling chips in it to watch the TV. With cable card, however, these crypto chips are sparated out so the cable company can had you a CableCARD, and you can buy whatever set-top box you want.
So, even if you get this card, you aren't going to be able to watch many digital cable channels with it since they will all be encrypted (at least here in the US). Now, when they release a version with CableCARD, I'll jump all over it (and begin the search/code for Linux drivers).
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
From the pictures it looks like all connections are inputs, with no TVOut.
It would be nice if this had composite out to TV(A/V), not just the 'Play on PC'. Combine w/PC-based controller (MythTV), and I would not need to add HDDVR and HDTuner to get HD picture.
It receives digital cable signals straight in? I wonder if there's a way to have it act as a tuner and an in-computer cable modem, too?
I wouldn't mind having a bit more control over my cable internet hookup...
Picture in picture in picture on the computer monitor would be nice. A little live TV feed in the corner of the second monitor would have been a great way to keep up on hurricane Charlie last weekend.
AJH
I don't care about the HDTV thing myself, but it would be cool if somehow I could receive my digital cable straight into my computer. That or digital terrestrial in the UK. Anyone got any information about achieving this with NTL cable?
I never seem to see conclusions cited in links to reviews. Is quoting them a faux pas?
-- "I'm not a religious man, but if you're up there, save me Superman..."
Its fine to have a card that can receive QAM signals from cable. However, as the article states, this card can only receive in-the-clear (unencrypted) content. Since most cable operators in north america encrypt their high value content (HD is definitely high value), the ability of the card to decode QAM signals is of limited value. Additionally, the modulation modes are not evident. That is, can the card decode 64QAM and 256QAM?
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" -- Dr. Strangelove
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Although I have posted about this before, I have recieved "threats" due to my "misrepresentation" of the card on slashdot. Do a search on http://www.avsforums.com and you will see that the software for this card is flaky and Fusion will not release the specifications so independant driver development can take place. If you buy this card, only get it for over-the-air HDTV. Again, do your research before buying this card, it does not work as advertised.
ObviousGuy's password was too obvious?
I have included the text of the article below, in case the site gets slashdotted:
/home/virtual/site27/fst/var/www/html/mainfile.php 4 on line 19
Warning: mysql_pconnect(): Too many connections in
Unable to select database
---------------------
Freedom or Evil: Freevil.net
G. W. Bush says, "You decide!"
This took me forever to put together (F5 F5 F5), so you better like it. This is a very partial selection of the review; note that there are usually chunks missing between paragraphs. Go visit the site and give them ad revenue once they're stable again.
Fusion III Gold QAM Card
It has been nearly three years since I reviewed one of the first HDTV Tuner cards to hit the market. At that time, the Access DTV card retailed for $400.00 and the only HDTV station available in my area was the local CBS. While the adoption of High Definition has improved greatly, I have to admit that it has been slower than I expected. Equally as surprising is the limited availability of HDTV tuner cards. Until recently, there were few players in this market. I am happy to say that this is starting to change. Manufacturers such as Hauppauge, ATI, and Dvico have developed affordable HDTV cards. Today, we are looking at one of these cards, the Dvico Fusion III Gold QAM. What makes this card unique are some very exciting features that others do not offer. Most notably is the reception of QAM modulated streams. What is QAM you ask? Simply put, DIGITAL CABLE.
The Fusion also allows you to adjust the display ratio for virtually any screen. One of the features that we beta testers fought for was the ability to do a Pan & Scan from a 16x9 source. Nearly all HDTV broadcast are in a 16x9 aspect ratio. However, not all content is in 16x9. So, if the local news is being shown on CBS-HD, there will be black bars on the left an right of the screen. This is acceptable for a 16x9 screen. However, if the image is being shown on a 4x3 screen (computer monitor), you end up with a square image inside of a square screen. Luckily, Pan & Scan allows you to fill the entire screen with the image.
A recent feature which was added lately (not shown in this screenshot) is the ability to get analog audio through the PCI bus. Otherwise, you need to use an internal audio jumper cable for analog television. HDTV AC-3 audio is decoded through software and can be output as either 2CH analog, 5CH analog, or straight through the digital SPDIF out of your sound card.
For those of you who have still not seen HDTV up close, stop now and go download the Fusion Demo. HDTV on a computer monitor is quite impressive. I found the image quality to be remarkable on the Fusion and have included some screen shots below. Keep in mind that these are compressed JPEGs. Here you can see analog TV next to HDTV from a real broadcast that I recordeed of the same sitcom. The images speak for themselves. Click for a larger view.
NTSC Broadcast
ATSC Broadcast
While I found the image quality to be outstanding, I cannot say the same for the decoding capabilities. Some broadcasts seem to be quite jumpy depending on which version of drivers and software that I was using. 720P broadcasts were jumpier than 1080i. What is strange is that the CPU utilization was practically nothing using DxVA, around 30%. Still, at some times I saw dropped frames. When speaking to DVico about this, I was told that they are experiencing some problem with nForce based boards. However, I also tested the card on a VIA board with similar results. DvXA did deliver a much better image than pure-software decoding. Using software-only also restricts full-scale decoding. The software decoding option offers quarter, half, and full-scale decoding. Above half-scale was unwatchable on my 3200+. The image shown above is taken from a full-scale DxVA grab.
Analog decoding was exceptional. The software has built-in deinterlacing capabilities which greatly improves the image quality of analog broadcasts. However, a full-out deinterlacer such as DScaler yields better results.
QAM Decoding
Here is where things get a bit tricky. While the Fusion III Gold QAM is capable of receiving and decoding QAM, it CANNOT decode an encrypted channel. That means that it depends entirely on what your local cable company is encrypting for their d
--------------------- -me, Crusher of those who are Foolish (don't be foolish)
http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2546404 ATI has had this card out for a while. I don't own it, but I do have one of their regular all-in wonder cards. I've got no problems recording and time shifting video.
On another note, many people have been talking about cable companies scrambling their HDTV cable channels. These cards aren't for receiving digital cable HDTV channels; they are for receiving OVER THE AIR HDTV broadcast channels (as well as regular analog cable channels).
Maybe they should try using PostgreSQL. Maybe even PowerPC instead of AMD. :)
mbbac
www.amdpower.com died in front of my eyes. :D
Maybe some of you could use an alternative link from our beloved internet archiver
Can you buy anything with this and do any cable companies even support it (ie, issuing the cards)? I know it's a real standard, but it's not here yet that I know about.
It would enable a free-standing HD Tivo I could use with my HD cable service, since they could use the DirecTivo trick of recording the raw signal straight to disk, in addition to ditching the hated cable box.
The ATI card has a chip to handle QAM but unfortunatenly it is disabled.
Therefore it is no use for most Digital Cable in the US even if the signal is not encrypted.
the site is nothing but fake links, mod it down
Just your average Farmer
Their mysql database just took wretched, so I couldn't get passed page 1... BUT if this is true it's a big boon for the homebrew HDTV, HTPC, PVR, DVR scene (enough acronyms for ya?).
I've got to get my hands on one of these stat!
Anyone who read the whole article know how they are doing the modulated QAM? Is it via CableCards?
E.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Hi I'm the author of the article. Stupid little virtual server... Anyway, It does receive HDTV QAM. That is what it is built for. It also receives "standard" digital cable. It DOES need to be UNENCRYPTED though.
The original post is 100% correct. S/he mistyped the address since its actually avsforum.com
Actually, I've been thinking about modifying a few cable modems to intercept the QPSK OOB signal on digital cable, and spoof it. Have 2 cable modems, with some splitters and filters in between them, so that we can get QAM to the set top box, but the first cable modem could listen/talk to the headend, and the second cable modem could listen/talk to the cablebox.
For instance, docsis cable modems would seem to be able to ahndle this, assuming they have a frequency agile tuner (most do, I believe), and aren't one chip solutions (RCA ones come to mind).
Anyone care to comment?
The site we all care about is avsforum, not avsforum(s).com. As for the claims of "threats" and such made by the AC, well it doesn't pass my BS meter. Good call. --M
Introduction
Fusion Box
It has been nearly three years since I reviewed one of the first HDTV Tuner cards to hit the market. At that time, the Access DTV card retailed for $400.00 and the only HDTV station available in my area was the local CBS. While the adoption of High Definition has improved greatly, I have to admit that it has been slower than I expected. Equally as surprising is the limited availability of HDTV tuner cards. Until recently, there were few players in this market. I am happy to say that this is starting to change. Manufacturers such as Hauppauge, ATI, and Dvico have developed affordable HDTV cards. Today, we are looking at one of these cards, the Dvico Fusion III Gold QAM. What makes this card unique are some very exciting features that others do not offer. Most notably is the reception of QAM modulated streams. What is QAM you ask? Simply put, DIGITAL CABLE. This does NOT mean that you can buy the card and get free pay stations. We'll get further into this later. Let me first tell you how I came to know DVico.
A little over a year ago, I became a beta tester for DVico's line of HDTV cards. What started as a stumble across a Google search turned into a year long journey testing various production and pre-production Dvico units. Before Dvico, all HDTV Tuner cards were hardware-based. This meant a dedicated Mpeg-2 decoder and increased cost. Out of curiosity, I started searching for a software-only solution that would offer the same functionality at a reduced cost. After all, the ATSC over-the-air signal is nothing more than an Mpeg-2 stream, albeit at a very high resolution and bitrate. While I was playing around at the AVSForums, I saw that Korean-based Dvico was accepting beta tester applications for a U.S. launch of their HDTV cards. The first card I tested was their FusionHDTV II, shown above. The FusionHDTV II would be their first US available HDTV Tuner card. It was also the first card on the market to use a software-based HDTV decoder. Soon after the release of the card, Dvico started experimenting with the possibility of decoding QAM signals. With the existing tuner chip on the HDTV II, it was not possible. However, after several revisions of cards and input from U.S. beta testers, Dvico delivered the Fusion III Gold QAM. It is the only HDTV tuner card on the market which can successfully decode QAM modulated digital cable stations. Today, we are reviewing that card. Let us first look at the specifications and features.
Specs and Features
The Fusion HDTV III Gold QAM is based off of Conexant's newest signal-decoder chip, the CX23882. Conexant has long been the industry standard when it comes to tuner cards. Their newest line of chips, is what allows the reception of QAM signals. Working together with the decoder chip is a Tecmic tuner chip. Since ATSC signals use standard UHF frequencies, the tuner portion of the card is nothing entirely special. The card has two RF inputs, one is for CATV and one for Over-The-Air. There is also an S-Video port and an Audio input which can be used to capture video from a Digital Cable Box, Camera, Playstation, etc. It can also be used to scale and upconvert video from an S-Vid or Composite source to hi-res. The S-Video port can be made into a composite port with a simple S-Video to Composite adapter. Such an adapter is not currently included in the package. When Dvico released the QAM version of this card, they added a daughter board which can be seen in the third picture below. I'm uncertain as to the exact functionality of this board.
Test System / Decoding Options
Since the Fusion cards do not have a dedicated Mpeg-2 decoder chip, the minimum system specs can be a bit stringent. However if an ATI card is used (8500 and up), the fusion drivers borrow the built-in Mpeg acceleration from the Radeon using DxVA (DirectX Video Acceleration). The Fusion can take advantage of DxVA using several GeForce cards as well. These cards include the MX420, 440, and FX Series. Keep in mind that the nVidia list is very specific. There are ce
I see that cable companies are supplying HDTV boxes with 1394 sockets now. I even have one :-) Unfortunately I've been unable to capture anything from it. Does anyone know what format it is? The older boxes used to be something along the lines of MPEG-TS. I've yet to find any specs for the 1394+HDTV set top boxes :-(
I'm sure it would be a great place to start getting information.
is envoked, or an IP lawsuite filed, to get the device off the market? A few days to a few weeks?
Let me clear up a few things about this card. There were several revisions of it and it was very hard trying to get QAM to function properly from overseas. They actually released a version that was supposed to do QAM. It was the Non-Gold version of the Fusion III. The Gold version does function with QAM. And, I have tested it as working at home. As always, with any hardware, YMMV. Keep in mind again that if its encrypted (most content is) you're not going to get a picture. I have included a screenshot in the article of it actually working with a digital preview station.
...not a hopped up toy that is showing it's roots....
Oh yeah, you might have to *pay* for that. I guess regular DDOSing is a small price to pay for running a popular site on free software.
Blar.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
Ati makes a HDTV tuner as well. Linky
Scanning through the avsforum thread, FusionHDTV III Gold QAM Impressions seems to indicate success with the product. The AC links to a bogus site which only appears legitimate, doesn't offer up his name on avsforum to verify his claim of unspecified "threats", and blasts the product with further unverified claims of nonfunctionality. The parent post looks either trollish or astroturfish more than offering helpful advice. JMO though. --M
I personally found the card to be less than useful. The software included with the card IS flaky. I CAN'T just download new drivers and software because it is 50MB to 60MB, I'm not about to tie up my line for that. (I'm just a few hundred feet too far from any form of broadband)
Despite the Matrox G450 clearly being in one of their compatibility lists, it does not work, even with the latest drivers, unless I only wanted to watch the analog broadcasts.
As for QAM, the older versions didn't work, but the current version is supposed to work with unencrypted QAM.
The HDTV card is cool...
The website is hosted on Ensim's hosting solution...
The website has been slashdotted...
That about covers it.
Oh and Linux users can use it. There have been reported successes using this card with MythTV.
Why worry? Each of us is wearing an unlicensed "nucular" accelerator on his back.
Sig changed for readability by G.W.
HD feeds are all encrypted, so what we really need is a CableCard adapter for our HTPCs. That would rock. It would rock so much that I don't expect one to come out for at least a couple of years (at least not if the cable co's and MPAA can help it). feh.
This whole "digital content" mess is headed for a meltdown, mark my words. And unfortunately, I don't think we (consumers) are going to come out winners. Media owners have more dollars than we have votes, as sad as that is.
Where did you find this info about "the ATI card has the chip to handle QAM but unfortunatenly it is disabled"? I don't see that on the product page.
And I never said it was of any use for digital cable. I said ANALOG cable. You can still record digital cable with it, just send the rca outputs from the cable box into the ati card and change the channel on the cable box to whatever you want to record.
This link has been around for a while. Does anyone have any experience with this card, and the drivers under linux ?
See http://peripherals.engadget.com/entry/177121278893 3180/
The card isn't without drawbacks; while the ATI chip is capable of supporting QAM modulation (a cable TV delivery system) they've chosen to disable its use for the HDTV Wonder, and it also stores the files in a slightly non-standard manner.
Does anyone know if this means I can just jack an IF signal in from a BS dish and be able to watch Japanese BS Digital HiVision on my computer? Somehow I doubt it since this card is designed primarily for 8VSB and QAM modulation of ATSC signals. If I remember correctly, BS Digital uses as standard called something like ISDB-S, which is a Japan-only standard. I've tried contacting DVICO to get an answer this question, but never received a response.
I have been searching for PCI card with BS Digital capabilities for a while but haven't seen anything. I think that lack of BS Digital computer cards has something to do with the requirement for copy-protection measures that are even more strict than the US FCC's "broadcast flag" restrictions. Anyone here knowledgable on getting BS Digital working using a computer/LCD monitor? I don't feel like purchasing a new TV set right now.
P.S. I don't read/write Japanese well (hiragana/katakana only--kanji fries my brain), so searching Japanese language pages for answers has been an exercise in futility.
The great company pcHDTV http://www.pchdtv.com/ that gave us the HD-2000 Linux HDTV tuner card will be releasing a new card called the HD-3000. The new card is reported to have support for QAM "out of the box". Also to note, the HD-2000 is QAM capable, but no one has written this part of the driver yet.
YES!!! There is a Linux driver for this card!
Chris Pascoe has written a Linux driver for the Austrailian version of the card. See: http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~chrisp/DVICO-Linux/. AFAIK, the only difference between the Austrailian and American versions is the tuner. If we can find the codes (perhaps by sniffing them w/ a homebrew I2C sniffer), we should be able to have a fully-functioning driver for the US card.
Bonus: the card is half-height, and comes with a low-profile PCI backplate, which would make it fit nicely into a small MythTV-powered PVR.
Sorry folks, mod parent down. I accidentally replied to the wrong post.
I'm surprised that it hasn't been mentioned, but does this support the broadcast pira^H^H^H^H protection flag?
They're informational tools. Revealing the end isn't a spoiler.
When i see a post relating to an article, or review, i want to know if it's worth my time. I don't always care about every small detail. My biggest annoyance is with benchmarks. I don't want to sift through 8 pages of graphs just to read each test's conclusion, and the final verdict. I want the summary. The gist of it. If i care about the subject, if I'm interested in the topic, if i want to delve deeper into the technicalities of it all (which GPU rendered less than 10 FPS at maximum detail with DX9 compared to DX8?), i'll read the entire article, with great delight.
And yes, I know that sites costs money, and that the money comes from ads and click throughs. I'm curious as to what other people might think, especially webmasters/content writers.
-- "I'm not a religious man, but if you're up there, save me Superman..."
Hate to crap on another poster (I really do) but this fella got modded up for this post and I thought a clarification would be helpful...
/. What WAS interesting is this cards ability to receive CABLE hdtv. So "These cards aren't for receiving digital cable" wins at least the weekly, if not monthly award for missing the point entirely.
The issue here is NOT a new TV card, those are common and would not rate a story on
What people want to do is record their Sopranos, or concerts or HD ESPN football games, and right now, and forever more, none of the current crop of HDPC cards can do that. Apparently this one really can't either, but including the feature is a step in the right direction. Next maybe someone with real customer orientation and some coding skills may actually put out a working card with a "cable card" slot for decryption, and then we'd be cooking with gas. Watch this space.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal...
"Media owners have more dollars than we have votes, as sad as that is."
Really? Were did they get all that money? Rob a bank? Seriously a dollar:==vote, use it or stop complaining.
I've been considerering getting a DVHS system to record my favorite shows via Voom. Then I'd like to compress them with an HD codec like HD WM9 and store them on my drives or DVD-R's. Are there any decent HD codec alternatives and related software?
= &t hreadid=347428
I am specifically interested in people's experience with 1920x1080p encoding.
BTW, the Bravo D3 will be able to play WM9 HD material.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s
"the software also comes with a utility to downsample HDTV content to DVD and DivX"
...
I can almost hear the entertainment industries screaming
The Fusion III has been out for almost a year now.
Just cause you HEARD of the ATI card first, doesn't mean that this korean company didn't have a product
out first, without all the news of an ATI product release.
Any TV tuner card capable of decoding the NICAM digital audio stream present in British broadcasts is capable of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation decoding, since that's what NICAM uses. It is not rocket science.
If anyone's seen the GNU software radio to do HDTV it's neat http://comsec.com/wiki?HowtoHdTv. Only $1000 worth of hardware though :(
My understanding of how Cox handles digital cable is that the entire cable network (boxes, modems and whatever else they use) are part of a MASSIVE IP network. Each of the set-top boxes acquires an IP address in the 10.0.0.0/8 range (I presume I got my CIDR right) and it authenticates the MAC address. I'd have to call to verify this, but I could envision that you might be able to call up Cox, give them the MAC and be able to pay for the service while skipping the rental fee for the box.
There is a difference between "insightful" and "inciteful" other than spelling.
So this card cant recieve encrypted QAM data, so unless your cable company is giving away their HD content (leaving it unencrypted - HA fat chance outside of the local channels which you can get OTA anyways) its not all that useful. Until a decoder/capture card is CableCard enabled (allowing it to be authorized to decrypt the HD channels) its not all that useful as an HD capture card. I know my local cable co (Cox) scrambles all digital content except for the PPV-Preview channels as well as the local HD simulcasts.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
I was kind of hoping that one of these vendors would step up to bat in the Linux world. But I guess that I am one of many, especially here in /. world. I just hope these windows cards are less buggy than the ATI ALL-In-Wonder cards have traditionally been. Time will tell!
A couple of things that I didn't see in this cards softwaare was "Display Bit-rate" and "Save video in original stream format".
All I can suggest for anyone buying HDTV hardware is to do a heck of a lot of research.
I've owned both the FusionHDTV II and the MyHD MDP-120. My short review for those interested:
FusionHDTV: low price and nice playback of HD streams. It has a nice FF function that makes skipping commercials easy. There is also a nice included program for converting a HD transport stream (what the card records to your hard drive) into DVD video. The BIG downside to this card is that it's almost impossible to get a perfect recording of shows because of the software decoding regardless of how fast your computer is. Out of a few dozen shows I tried recording, not one had no errors.
MyHD MDP-120: Downside is that it's expensive and you have to spend even more to get DVI output. Also the warranty is vague at best, so you'll likely be out $300 if the thing breaks. The upside is that the card records shows on just about any box flawlessly. It's got good tuner reception and the software is pretty solid now. It has basic PVR functionality for connecting to titantv and choosing shows.
Obviously they're not going to say in a weblog, but does the card record the original transport stream or downsample it to a DVD resolution and record a program stream? With all the legal problems, you probably won't see any retail card recording HDTV transport streams.
I was kind of hoping that one of these vendors would step up to bat in the Linux world. But I guess that I am one of many, especially here in /. world. I just hope these windows cards are less buggy than the ATI ALL-In-Wonder cards have traditionally been. Time will tell!
There is one: the HD-2000, from pcHDTV -- it's the world's first Linux-only TV tuner card, and it supports both NTSC (analog) and ATSC (digital) broadcasts.
Right now, they're selling out the last of their HD-2000 cards to make room for the HD-3000. It's speculated that the HD-3000 adds support for digital cable, but there's nothing definite.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
The article states that it does not receive any of the ecrypted channels.
Which means for Comcast Cables in se.pa.us, you'll be able to view the rebroadcast local over-the-air DTV channels (ABC, CBS, WB, PBS, et. al.), as well as the unscrambled analog cable channels. ISTR there were one or two other DTV channels that aren't considered "premium" in the lineup, but most were.
I'd like this for legitimate reasons as well.
I have a Disk Network system which sends encrypted-MPEG-2, apparently in a DVB wrapper. I pay for it, I have the smartcard, no shenanegins here. I don't want any channels I don't pay for - if they were worthwhile I'd pay for them but they're not.
I want to build a MythTV box that can take the satellite signal like the Dish PVR I have (very buggy). It should be feasible and all legal, but DMCA and the industial cabal have seen to it that such hardware is nearly impossible to come by.
Please somebody prove me wrong.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
COOL! Thanks for the info. I will check this out! :)
Do what I used to do... get a resumeable FTP client (I personally like ncftp on *nix and BitBeamer on windows). Start up the transfer when you go to sleep at night. If it's still going in the morning, kill it and resume tomorrow night.
Repeat until done!
I can confirm QAM in the HD-3000 is not speculation. (The HD-2000 is also QAM capable, but no one has taken the intiative and added support in the driver for it, which is GPL'd. I haven't added it because I don't have cable to test it on). But remember, viewing streams over QAM is only good if the cable provider is not sending encrypted streams, which many do.
Wrong on several counts. (RTFA?)
The Fusion series of HDTV cards have been around for a couple years.
The newest revision IS the first to (supposedly) receive unencrypted QAM.
The point of this card IS to receive digital cable HDTV channels. That was the major revision from the Fusion II to the Fusion III. However, you can only receive unencrypted QAM channels over digital cable. Obviously, only a few channels are transmited unencrypted.
This card works superbly for me, including the software. The only problems I've had with ATSC (free broadcast HD) is jerkiness. This problem was actually caused by a faulty motherboard BIOS that didn't allow my ATI 9600SE to use the AGP properly. Once BIOS updated, I haven't had any problems since.
QAM is moot because anything good on cable will be encrypted anyway.
My only complaint is that there's no way for the software to turn the computer off and on when needed to make scheduled recordings, but this problem seems to plague all of the add-in tuner card solutions.
It's hard to RTFA when TFA gets creamed after 6 posts.