Low Cost HDTV Cards

Dozer writes "TerraLogic's new Janus-based HDTV cards allows a PC user to get some excellent HDTV without draining the wallet. The cards will do line doubling and handle AC3 audio, all for less than 10% of the cost of an HDTV set..." So I want that, Linux support, and then HDTV broadcasts of every sci fi movie ever.

Comments

v4l

[yet another coward]

Can a driver be incorporated into the Video for Linux project?

Will these companies reveal the workings of their cards?

I want to use it with X and Linux.

Will regular TV sets become useless?

[Eccles]

>You know, you can't just obsolete every TV set in the nation and tell people "Oh, you have to upgrade your set or not watch TV anymore."

Actually, that is the FCC plan. However, a converter box will make the TV useful again (and of course VCRs aren't going away that soon.) If PC converter cards are $300 now, the converters should be pretty cheap once they're mass-marketed. Even on a regular set, the digital picture should be an improvement over analog broadcasts.

Is this cheaper than a HDTV set

[squistle]

Actually there are a half dozen formats being used for DTV and HDTV. All of the HDTV sets will support all of the formats, but the broadcasts will vary. Some of the networks will broadcast in 1024i (1024 lines, interlaced), but mostly just for football games and other high-profile events. Most of the broadcasts will be 640i or 640p. I haven't heard of anyone willing to use the necessary bandwidth to broadcast with the best resolution available (1024p).

And, oh by the way, the Japanese HDTV is entirely different. Theirs is actually analog.

A few links

[Tekmage]

Here are some I found:

TeraLogic
Hauppauge Computer Works
BTTV page

cheese-o-scope.

[AaronW]

While HDTV looks extremely clean, it's a total waste unless you have a 60" display, which is the recommended minimum size. HDTV projection displays will come down significantly in the next couple of years due to some new non-CRT technology coming down the pipe which are solid-state. The new technologies can easily reproduce the HDTV resolutions and beyond.

The other big advantage of HDTV (which a PC monitor will not take advantage of) is the 16:9 aspect ratio, which means that all HDTV broadcast and recorded movies will be wide-screen.

HDTV on a 19" CRT is not much comparison to even regular TV on a good 32" set from an entertainment perspective.

How can I claim this? I have a very good line-quadrupled DVD setup currently running 1440x960 through a 19" monitor (until I get my other monitor fixed). If I'm only a couple feet away it looks great, but that's no way to enjoy a movie. Of course, HDTV is a big improvement over the line-doubled/quadrupled NTSC. Also, for regular TV if the line doubling is not done properly there are all kinds of annoying artifacts that show up due to de-interlacing. Most de-interlacers I have seen have this problem to varying degrees, the exceptions being Snell and Wilcox ($30,000) and a Phillips unit (DVX8000 - $5K) and some units based on a chip from Genesis.

As for combining HDTV and a PC, they're a perfect match in many ways. The HDTV format allows for more than just plain audio and video to be transmitted. I.E. you could click on an object on the screen and get more information on it.


As for recording HDTV, the latest specs I've seen are 3 1/2 hours of HDTV on a VHS tape or 7 hours of DTV, and since it's digital there should be no quality degredation.

Now, instead of running HDTV on a PC monitor I'd love to be able to hook my PC up to an HDTV monitor and play Quake on a 60" screen at 1920x1080!

-Aaron

Will regular TV sets become useless?

[Raetsel]

Every TV channel is allocated a certain slice of the spectrum. What we don't think about much is the fact that the current signal does not use the full allocation! HDTV will use the full allocated bandwidth, and is slated to replace(!!!) the current broadcast signals several years past 2000. (I don't know the exact date.)

What does this mean?

1. HDTV is digital, current broadcasts are analog. There is no compatability.
2. The FCC has given up on the idea of 'backward compatibility' in this case.
3. You will have to replace your TV, or purchase a receiver that'll feed an analog interpretation of the digital signal to your old TV
4. Manufacturers can no longer use the unused portion of the TV channel spectrum for medical telemetry.
   1. 
      This caused a problem in (Houston?) Texas when a HDTV broadcast test was performed. The local hospital's wireless medical telemetry equipment (heart monitors and the like) suddenly stopped functioning due to the obvious overwhelming interference!

Standards do get replaced. We don't use spark-gap transmitters for obvious reasons. Television is about to evolve, hopefully for the better. I just hope that we won't be getting up-close-and-personal with Dan Rather's pores.

Now, let's look at this from the cable company's point of view. Their carrying capacity is based on the currently used bandwidth, not the allocated bandwidth. When HDTV comes along, they're not going to be very enthusiastic about carrying these new, fatter signals. Remember, on one HDTV channel allocation, a station can transmit 3 'standard' (525 line) broadcasts or 1 'high-definition' broadcast. In Connecticut, TCI has their 'digital cable' offering. The channel numbers go all the way up to 800. Not by any stretch of the imagination are all of them used, but with HDTV clogging their pipes, the number of channels that they can offer will drop drastically. I don't think that TCI will be exactly happy to drop pay-per-view channels in order to transmit the 'new and improved' Public Broadcasting.