Confused about Cable based HD...

[Pilot]

I've read through all the threads I could find, but of course my search isn't going to find much when "HD" is a disregarded search string, so I may have missed a thread or two that wasn't titled properly.

Anyway, my local cable provider (USA) is giving us some freebie HD channels. I read in one thread here that GB-PVR doesn't support anything but over-the-air HD signals, right? So is there any way for me to record any of these cable-based HD channels in GB-PVR? I want them to remain in HD quality, of course (or else I'd just get an external HD tuner and route it through my PVR150 or PVR500). Would the combination of an external HD tuner and say an ATI HDTV Wonder card do the job? Is there a better solution? Is there any solution? Is there no one else who has wanted to do this?

This must be one of those situations where I'm missing something.

[sub]

At the moment its not currently possible.

Would the combination of an external HD tuner and say an ATI HDTV Wonder card do the job?

No. The HDTV Wonder can only receive HDTV through the tuner, not through cables from external box (there is no component video input connectors etc).

The reason HD over cable is a problem is because the BDA interface specified by Microsoft doesnt not define how QAM tuning should be implemented, so there is no standard way to do this. To date very few cards that have been manufactured are capable of tuning QAM. The dvico fusion devices are capable, because there is no standard describing how QAM tuning should be implemented, they've come up with their own proprietary mechanism for doing it. The information on how they do this is private and only known to dvico. I've tried to contact them to ask for information, but they dont seem to want to talk to me.

[Pilot]

The information on how they do this is private and only known to dvico. I've tried to contact them to ask for information, but they dont seem to want to talk to me.

Well...how rude! Haha.

Okay, okay...it's hard to believe that I'm actually wanting to do something that can't be done yet -- I'm usually way behind the times and running to catch up!

So, I guess my only solution for recording anything on the HD channels provided by my cable company is to get an external HD tuner box and then output it analog mode to my PVR cards. I guess the quality of the "downgrade" conversion would depend on the external tuner.

I just saw a show on HD technologies and how they're already trying to move beyond HD into something else. Kind of silly considering that they haven't even really standardized everything about HD yet, eh?

[gmanning]

At the moment its not currently possible.

The reason HD over cable is a problem is because the BDA interface specified by Microsoft doesnt not define how QAM tuning should be implemented, so there is no standard way to do this. To date very few cards that have been manufactured are capable of tuning QAM. The dvico fusion devices are capable, because there is no standard describing how QAM tuning should be implemented, they've come up with their own proprietary mechanism for doing it. The information on how they do this is private and only known to dvico. I've tried to contact them to ask for information, but they dont seem to want to talk to me.

Would functional Linux drivers be of any help in leading to a solution? The Dvico Fusion cards are fully functional in Linux, and the author of the drivers has an engineering contact at Dvico that he consults with.

Perhaps some introductions might prove fruitful.

Gary

[sub]

Would functional Linux drivers be of any help in leading to a solution?

No, they wouldnt.

The only thing that would be useful is either Microsoft publishing specs for how QAM should be implemented by developers in their BDA drivers, or alternatively Dvico making information available about how they have implement QAM in their drivers.

[zed]

So, I guess my only solution for recording anything on the HD channels provided by my cable company is to get an external HD tuner box and then output it analog mode to my PVR cards. I guess the quality of the "downgrade" conversion would depend on the external tuner.

I've been doing that for a while. I have an RCA ATSC11 OTA tuner that I feed into GB-PVR via the S-Video input on a PVR150MCE. Of course, it's downconverted to 480i but the quality is still much better than the analog cable. The ATSC11 will do up to 1080i out but I don't have any way to feed that into my system...no DVI or component inputs. Then again, I don't have an HDTV anyway so I'd have to watch it on my monitor. It's also strictly over-the-air, not cable. Only problem is that I haven't figured out how to change channels on it altho I was playing with HiP before the holidays. For now I have it tuned to PBS since they're about the only thing worth watching anyway and their HD quality is by far the best of the local lot.

I'd imagine that you could do the same with an HD cable box. Channel changing might be an issue there, too. It'd be an interesting project, at least...