North American Users - HDTV results?

[allsighs]

With the new (albiet basic) ATSC HDTV support I have been eying buying a Fusion5 Lite card, but i wanted to see if there have been many North American GBPVR users who have tried the support in the new version and what your results and experiences have been like.

Another question i had (since the DVICO site doesnt discuss it as far as i could find), is it not worth the time if you do not have a roof-top antenna?

Loving the new build sub. Donation coming soon.

[daphatty]

With the new (albiet basic) ATSC HDTV support I have been eying buying a Fusion5 Lite card, but i wanted to see if there have been many North American GBPVR users who have tried the support in the new version and what your results and experiences have been like.

As it stands right now, I believe I am the only GB-PVR user who has a Fusion 5 lite setup and working with GB-PVR. (I was involved in the testing of ATSC support prior to the release of 93.x.) The Fusion 5 is a great card. I truly believe it was a worthwhile purchase. The key to succesful integration in GB-PVR is getting the card running correctly with the DViCO software. (Make sure you use the most version of the software AND the BDA version of the drivers that are available from the DViCO website.) You will need to use the Fusion software to perform some of the functions that GB-PVR can't do quite yet (signal strength detection for example).

Assuming that you have the card working with the DViCO software, integration into GB-PVR is fairly straightforward. In fact, the only tricky part is manually entering the channel data (which I think I have made easier by writing the tutorial located in the second post of this thread.)

Another question i had (since the DVICO site doesnt discuss it as far as i could find), is it not worth the time if you do not have a roof-top antenna?

The answer to this question is, unfortunately, extremely subjective. There are alot of external factors that will affect the outcome and performance of your ATSC signal. Your biggest concern should be a) your distance from the transmission tower and b) the location of your antenna. Part A isn't very difficult to figure out. Just go to http://www.antennaweb.org and enter your address to find out how many channels you can receive and how far you will be from the tower. Part B is a little more difficult.

As you may already know, an ATSC signal is broadcast on the UHF band, which basically means a pair of rabbit ears could pull in a signal. Then again, it might not. If you are like me, then you live in an apartment with several obstacles that can impede the signal's ability to reach your antenna. One of the more popular antenna's is the DB2 from Antenna Direct. It's not very pretty but most people seem to think its the best thing since sliced bread. It was originally intended as an outdoor antenna but its relatively small size is a hit for apartment dwellers. I ended up with this Samsung model which is considerably smaller and works well for me. I live in a basement apartment and receive the channels most important to me.

I'd suggest you research the subject as much as possible before making an investment. The AVS Forums have A TON of information on HDTV and are probably the best resource on the web for Audio/Video. (They suck for HTPCs though.) Hopefully I've provided you with enough information to get started. Good luck!

- DaPhatty

[Pioneer4x4]

As it stands right now, I believe I am the only GB-PVR user who has a Fusion 5 lite setup and working with GB-PVR. (I was involved in the testing of ATSC support prior to the release of 93.x.) The Fusion 5 is a great card. I truly believe it was a worthwhile purchase. The key to succesful integration in GB-PVR is getting the card running correctly with the DViCO software. (Make sure you use the most version of the software AND the BDA version of the drivers that are available from the DViCO website.) You will need to use the Fusion software to perform some of the functions that GB-PVR can't do quite yet (signal strength detection for example).

Assuming that you have the card working with the DViCO software, integration into GB-PVR is fairly straightforward. In fact, the only tricky part is manually entering the channel data (which I think I have made easier by writing the tutorial located in the second post of this thread.)




The answer to this question is, unfortunately, extremely subjective. There are alot of external factors that will affect the outcome and performance of your ATSC signal. Your biggest concern should be a) your distance from the transmission tower and b) the location of your antenna. Part A isn't very difficult to figure out. Just go to http://www.antennaweb.org and enter your address to find out how many channels you can receive and how far you will be from the tower. Part B is a little more difficult.

Thanks, Based on my location, I need an amped directional. (Most stations were purple) I'm in a valley about 15-20 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. I was amazed how much it changed just by putting in a neighbors house number. I guess I'll check out how much the cars are, and go from there. I won't be putting a big antenna with rotor on my roof, but I might hide it in the attic. I was hoping to use the cable box to tune, and the card to capture...

[daphatty]

I was hoping to use the cable box to tune, and the card to capture...

I still haven't figured out how to do that or if that is even possible. My Fusion 5 lite only has a coax input on it so I don't think it could control my cable box. Not that it matters since DViCO's QAM support is totally screwed up anyway. Maybe when they figure out encrypted QAM channels i'll revisit the issue.

[Pioneer4x4]

I still haven't figured out how to do that or if that is even possible. My Fusion 5 lite only has a coax input on it so I don't think it could control my cable box.

I saw that one of them has SVIDEO input, and I was 'hoping' that I could use it the way I'm using my 150. I have the cable box tune in the channel via girder and a serial cable, and I record straight off the composite video out of the cable box.

[zed]

I'm seriously considering getting a Fusion card also. I'm in the Phoenix AZ area and line-of-sight from all the stations so it should be no problem receiving the signals. I'm wondering, tho, how the recordings are handled by GBPVR. Once recorded, what can you watch them on? Can you watch them on Live TV on the computer? I doubt that the MVP will play them, will it? Can the HDTV be down-converted to NTSC? Or is that a function of the card at record time? How about the sound? I have on older Hauppauge DTV card that i've played with for a while. It will receive HDTV and SDTV and down-convert them to standard NTSC. It looks great on my 55" non-HD TV fed via s-video. I'd like to use GBPVR to record the digital channels and then be able to watch the recordings on a regular TV. Is there a way to do that with GBPVR? This would be over-the-air, no cable, digital or other wise.

[daphatty]

That's quite a few questions; i'll try to answer as many as possible.

I'm wondering, tho, how the recordings are handled by GBPVR. Once recorded, what can you watch them on? Can you watch them on Live TV on the computer?

Your computer will be able to play anything recorded by GB-PVR, assuming you have all the necessary audio and video codecs.

I doubt that the MVP will play them, will it?

Not unless you employ some sort of conversion method to "downsample" the video to a format the MVP can handle.

Can the HDTV be down-converted to NTSC?

Probably. http://www.doom9.org might have what you are looking for.

Or is that a function of the card at record time?

I'm not aware of any cards that do this natively. The Fusion 5 Lite does not although I recall the 5 Gold possibly having this ability...

How about the sound?

Not sure on this one.

I have on older Hauppauge DTV card that i've played with for a while. It will receive HDTV and SDTV and down-convert them to standard NTSC. It looks great on my 55" non-HD TV fed via s-video. I'd like to use GBPVR to record the digital channels and then be able to watch the recordings on a regular TV. Is there a way to do that with GBPVR?

You really need to find a tool that will downsample/convert these recordings for you. I've never tried anything like this but I'm sure someone around here has. If all else fails, I'm sure doom9 will have what you need.

[daphatty]

zed - I just found this tool. I've never used it but it sounds like it'll do what you need.

http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~balazer/HDTVtoMPEG2/

Also, here's a thread on the subject.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthrea...ge=1&pp=30

[zed]

Thanks...I'll check them out.

One more question...how do you feed the HD video to your HD TV? Video out from the computer's video card? From the Fusion card?

I've probably more than exhausted my question quota for one thread... :-)

[-stattik-]

I've got the Dvico ATSC Gold 3 and it works fine in GBPVR. To answer a few questions in this thread:

Can GBPVR play the HD recordings?

Yes, but it's CPU intensive unless you have a hardware decoder. I don't know if GBPVR supports any since I don't have one. My test machine (AMD 1800XP) uses 95% CPU when decoding a 1080i signal.

Can the recording be transcoded?

Not within GBPVR, I used AutoGK to transcode a 60 min 1080i recording on a P4 2.6GHZ machine and it took 6 hours. (2 pass xvid) It compressed to about 700 MB and looked great though.

QAM reception?

QAM reception works fine with unencryped signals for me (with the Divco app) but it's not implemented in GBPVR at this time. I don't know if Sub plans on adding this in the future.

Antenna Reception?

I'm about 20 miles out with no line-of-sight and I can pull in all but two stations with a cheap YAGI antenna that I have mounted in the attic.

How do you output HD signal to you HDTV?

While I haven't tried this yet, I know that DLP and LCD sets (and probably others) have an RGB connecter and you could connect the pc directly to.

Hopes this helps.