[wplug] pcHDTV-3000 cards for MythTV

[Patrick Wagstrom]

Drew from Zhrodague wrote:
> 
>     Hay, I forget whom it was that bought a bunch of pcHDTV-3000 cards 
> -- I'm looking for one to use with (my extensive) MythTV. I thought that 
> doing the digital cable from Comcast would replace the need for XMLTV. 
> Got any of those left?
> 
>     I found a scraper which sorta works for analog broadcasts.
> 
>     I'm also working on FTA satellite television, but I'm having a hard 
> time getting a proper signal.

Drew,

That was more than two years ago when I ordered the cards, and while I 
did order 24 of them, they all went to happy WPLUGgers.  As far as 
picking one up now, you can get a pcHDTV-5500 from 
http://www.pchdtv.com/ for $129, which is about what we paid for the 
HD-3000 cards back then.  I would advise the 5500 over the 3000 as it 
has a better tuner and is less sensitive to noise in the power supply (I 
had to replace my power supply to get my cards to work).

However, you may want to consider paying about $169 and getting an 
HDHomeRun, which is an external dual HDTV tuner that connects via 
ethernet.  It's much easier to setup, has better support, and is more 
isolated from issues that could muck up your HD reception.

As far as HDTV in Pittsburgh goes, Comcast broadcasts digital channels 
using QAM.  All of the local channels (which are definied as must carry 
by the FCC) are unencrypted (as they are required to be).  Comcast 
recently started to send the analog signals over QAM too, so with a 
HDHomerun, you'll be able to pick up the analog versions of many 
stations too, including things like the WGN and BET.  I know, nothing to 
write home about.

What I can't guarantee is if you'll be able to get all of the digital 
channels over QAM.  In the time that I've had a QAM tuner Comcast has 
slowly set more and more channels to be encrypted.  When I first got my 
cards I could get TNTHD, Discovery HD, inHD, and Universal HD all in the 
clear, this is no longer true for any of those channels.

As far as guide data goes, Comcast does include EIT guide data in their 
streams.  This will give guide data for most channels for a little ways 
out (a few days or so), but it's not as clean or useful as the data 
you'd get from schedulesdirect, a not-for-profit setup by the xmltv and 
mythtv guys, that charges $15 for a six month stream of data.

Anyway, you asked your question at a good time.  I'm going to give a 
talk about MythTV at the October 20th meeting.  I'll cover digital and 
high def too.

--Patrick