Talk:ATSC PCI cards

Table contents

Tzf 23:00, 18 July 2006 (CEST):

I just updated the chart with note 7, about the HD5500 card. I have one on order and will report back when I get it (perhaps today or tomorrow).

Should the table include prices? As I just noted, I just ordered the pcHDTV HD-5500, but now, belatedly, I looked up the Air2PC and found that it is about 1/6 the price! Though it looks like the HD-5500 decodes NTSC and QAM, and the Air2PC does neither... It might be nice to have the prices in there. Whaddayathink?

I also added an "external links" section, to save time on Googleing. Please give me a hand completing this ( I didn't check the ATI link, just did it from memory).

Tzf 00:37, 19 July 2006 (CEST):

... Nevermind, I went ahead and did it, please feel free to add/update.

Nybbler 18:52, 21 October 2006 (CEST):

I've added a column for the pcHDTV-5500 card.

BTW, are we sure about the variant of the 2388x used in these cards? I'm pretty sure 23882 can't be right for NTSC supporting cards (because that chip doesn't do BTSC stereo).

Dr. Randall Fisher 17:14, 18 December 2006 (CET):

It would be useful if the table contained information such as the type and number of inputs, the type and number of outputs, etc. A quick glance at the table shows little difference in many of the cards.

CityK 08:10, 3 February 2007 (CET):

Made my first changes to this article tonight -- rearranged the table (the horizontal sprawl just had to come to an end!) and applied some formatting....both of which took freakin' forever.

I'm not particularly fond of some things which remain in the table and in this article itself as it stands, so it is my intention to rework the material. I'll get to those things as time permits over the next little while.

One thing I did notice tonight though was that someone has submitted a new entry just a few days ago -- SKY Digital's SKY-HDTV. I haven't seen any mention of user success on the m/l in regards to this card, so I'm wondering if this is just company marketing spam....I have heard of SKY Digital before, but IIRC, the last time I saw mention of them was in a user forum, and it was in a similar situation where I suspected the drop insertion of "SKY Digital" into the discussion was just advertising as opposed to genuine user submitted content. Now the card itself is very similar to the FusionHDTV 5 Gold, and thus quite possibly is capable of being detecting and working as is. However, I'm a little hesitant to keep it listed on the page as a known working card without further proof that this isn't just spam advertising. So, I guess I will move it out during the next round of editing, unless someone can provide reliable info regarding the cards working status.

CityK 18:38, 3 February 2007 (CET)

Did some more table work. Ripped out the pricing column for starters -- pricing is always going to change, varies by source & location, product availability, and is difficult to keep up-to-date. Perhaps its interesting from a historical point of view, but I find that it isn't necessary here. In particular, I feel its something that the end user should be determining for themselves (as each user is bound to face a particular price point that is reflective of their location .... )

Also rearranged the current user submissions so that everything is grouped together under the relevant discussion topic. Not sure how people feel about that, but it makes it easier to read through. Also wondering if we even need to preserve past comments in this discussion page that are no longer relevant or are inaccurate (eg. Tzf's comment below about the broadcast flag & discontinuation of the older pcHDTV card ... I wouldn't want causal readers to be mislead, so I'm considering editing it out...perhaps later).

pcHDTV and the Broadcast Flag

Tzf 22:46, 18 July 2006 (CEST):

It looks like the HD-3000 did not have the Broadcast Flag implemented, which is why (or one of the reasons?) they discontinued it and introduced the HD-5500. I'm thinking about getting a used HD-3000 for this reason (don't bid against me dammit! ;^). Anyone else have any intelligence on this topic?

Nybbler 18:52, 21 October 2006 (CEST):

the pcHDTV-5500 card. It does have the broadcast flag "implemented" in as much as you can see it in the MPEG stream (any ATSC card will), but it doesn't do anything with it. Same for Macrovision. It sets a bozo bit in a register and lets the software decide what to do with it.

CityK 18:38, 3 February 2007 (CET)

AFAIK, no card, past or present, has the necessary logic incorporated in the hardware onboard for the device to respect a BF. If a broadcaster is implementing a BF in their signal then, as Nybbler mentions, if you analyse the stream you saved to disk, you should be able to see the bit marker in the stream.