[RndTbl] TV tuner cards

[Mike Pfaiffer]

On 10-11-14 04:29 PM, Adam Thompson wrote:
> Sadly, HD Cable and Digital Tuner cards do not work together in
> Canada.  In the US, there's a federal standard called CableCard that
> neither Industry Canada nor the CRTC was interested in, so each
> cableco here is free do do whatever they want.  And they pretty much
> all encrypt 100% of their digital traffic.

	The worst possible situation... Although the consumer pays for a 
product, they can't use it.

> The best you can do here is get a Shaw HD terminal, a FrameGrabber
> that supports Component Video input, and an IR blaster.

	In a sense that kind of defeats the purpose of going digital. If the 
signal has to be converted to analogue at some point it's really not the 
same. Granted the quality is going to be better than the analogue cable 
(which presumably would work fine) it still won't be completely digital.

> MTS TV users have the same issue, BTW.

	The bastards!!! ;-)

> In 2012, our TV stations must switch to HD OTA broadcasts, at that
> point you'll be able to use an ATSC tuner card.

	That will just be for the OTA stuff. I've been trying to follow what 
was happening. That and Superstore is selling the OTA digital boxes in 
the bargain bins. I've heard a few things which may or may not be good 
for Winnipeg. Namely the VHF spectrum (longer range) is no longer in use 
but the UHF spectrum (shorter range - no skip) is now used by OTA TV. 
I'd have to wonder if anybody has tried to get any current OTA TV from 
the States here in town. The thing is even a weak signal should still 
mean the station is visible.

	After all this I'd think the cable companies, CRTC, and the government 
were trying to kill off certain components of the computer hardware 
industry. It's not as if the cable companies aren't getting paid for 
their products. Also it's not as if they can't control what an 
individual house can access either. All they are doing is telling the 
consumer where to spend their money. It just sounds mean spirited to me.

	Maybe I should start looking at the FTA stuff a little earlier than 
expected...

> -Adam
>

				Later
				Mike



> -----Original Message----- From: Mike
> Pfaiffer<high.res.mike at gmail.com> Sender:
> roundtable-bounces at muug.mb.ca Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:53:31 To:
> MUUG Roundtable<roundtable at muug.mb.ca> Reply-To: Continuation of
> Round Table discussion<roundtable at muug.mb.ca> Subject: [RndTbl] TV
> tuner cards
>
> Does anybody have any experience with digital TV tuner cards? I'm
> thinking of picking one up in the next couple of months and I'm
> curious about which ones work well with Shaw. It would be nice to
> have access to the HD channels on the computer since none of the TVs
> in the house (or the one digital box we have) is HD compatible.
>
> I think I would need a basic set of definitions and vocabulary to
> work from before I start. Incidentally I plan to follow this up with
> a call to Shaw some time in the next couple of months. Consulting the
> folks here seems to be the logical first step (even before Google)
> because a few have actually set these things up.
>
> Some time in the future I might consider some FTA stuff. The one
> person I know who uses it all the time keeps putting off my request
> to actually see it in action. Sure the reviews from the satellite
> buffs are "It's great" but that really doesn't say anything.
>
> Later Mike _______________________________________________ Roundtable
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