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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. "
"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..."
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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
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.
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.
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
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.
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)
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.
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.
The FFC requires that any cable operator with over a certain amount of bandwidth on their network give out CableCARDs at the customer's request. As far as I know, the deadline for compliance was July 1st. I could be wrong on the specifics, but I do know the deadline has come and gone, so a majority of cable companies should comply by now. My cable company does.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
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.