Talk:PcHDTV

I just ended up here to try the HD-3000 card with DVB..I'm a Linux newbie and hardly have a clue unless I am guided well. I usually spend a lot of time searching before I post a question, but I have had the card a month and still not ready to record the Superbowl, time is short.

I am here because of a post by theCaptain on the pcHDTV forums and want to try this non pcHDTV co. driver. I am Jim on the pchdtv forum, nerdful1 on the PVR Guide. (and Meade telescope site). Trudging along now...

I think we should get some of the folks in the pcHDTV forum to help construct an up-to-date Current Driver Status page. It's a pain having to search through the forums for scattered bits of information. Unfortunately, I would not be able to provide much help because the HD reception in my area is poor and I don't know how to get QAM working. -iconian

How do I scan for QAM channels?

pcHDTV 3000 supports unencrypted QAM channels over cable. You must have the DVB module drivers (cx88_dvb) loaded to use QAM. [TODO add link to pcHDTV forums on DVB driver installation.] To scan for QAM channels:

1. Install the 'dvb-apps' tools from cvs. See http://www.linuxtv.org.

TODO add cvs instructions

2. Save 'http://www.digitalregime.com/patches/channels.conf-qam-correct' to '~/.azap/channels.conf'.

You should be able to scan for QAM channels using 'azap' from the dvb-apps. Run 'azap [channel]' to scan for a specified channel, e.g., 'azap c80'. Cable channels typically begin at 80. A FE_HAS_LOCK indicates a signal lock on channel.

MythTV 0.17 supports automagic scanning of DVB channels. Make sure you compile it with DVB support.

How do I know if a QAM channel is encrypted?

There does not seem to be a way to tell for certain. See this post and this reply (March, 2005).

How do I record a stream from DVB?

You can use dvbstream and dtvstream. See this post (March 19, 2005).