Does ATSC/QAM require encoding?

[bcdudley]

I am about to go pick up a new tuner card for my system. I am looking at the HVR-1250. I am a little confused about encoding stuff. I know this card does not have an encoder on it. Do HD signals not require encoding, or does this mean that the cpu will be doing the encoding?. I am not real concerned about analog, just the HD channels. Sorry it that is a stupid question, but I could not find any info for it in the wiki or in the forums.

[sgilani]

OTA ATSC and QAM channels are already encoded in MPEG-2 by the broadcaster, so no encoding needs to be done. Your tuner card will just send the MPEG-2 feed it receives to your system and your decoder will decode it.

[bcdudley]

Ok, thanks for the explanation. That clears it up quite a bit and makes sense.

Thank you.

[pastro]

Keep in mind if you are hooking this up to over the air channels you will be fine, if you are trying to receive QAM channels from cable, depending on your provider it may be encrypted which will not work.

[bcdudley]

I have Comcast cable in Dallas, TX (Carrollton). It is listed as QAM-256. I have a Samsung tv that is able to pick up about 30 digital channels from the cable signal, so I am assuming that it is not encrypted. Is that an incorrect assumption?

[whurlston]

Yes, that's correct. A QAM tuner in your PC should pick up the same digital stations that your TV does.

[bcdudley]

Ok, Thank you.