ATSC PCI cards

As of right now there are 14 confirmed working devices. (There are also a few DVB cards requiring definition that have not been confirmed to work).

• The pcHDTV HD-3000 card
• The pcHDTV HD-5500 card
• The air2pc (1st gen)
• The air2pc (2nd gen)
• The air2pc hd5000 (3rd gen)
• The DViCO FusionHDTV 3 GOLD-Q
• The DViCO FusionHDTV 3 GOLD-T
• The DViCO FusionHDTV 5 GOLD
• The DViCO FusionHDTV 5 LITE
• The DViCO FusionHDTV 5 USB GOLD
• The ATi HDTV Wonder
• The AVerMedia AVerTVHD A180
• The Kworld ATSC110
• SKY Digital HDTV

Here is a feature matrix to help keep track of what card does what:

pcHDTV HD-3000

pcHDTV HD-5500

Air2PC 1st

Air2PC 2nd

Air2PC HD5000 3rd

Fusion HDTV3 Gold-Q

Fusion HDTV3 Gold-T

Fusion HDTV5 Lite

Fusion HDTV5 Gold

Fusion HDTV5 USB Gold

HDTV Wonder

AVerTV HD A180

Kworld ATSC 110

SKY Digital HDTV

Frontend

or51132

lgdt3303

bcm3510

nxt2002

lgdt3303

lgdt3302

lgdt3302

lgdt3303

lgdt3303

lgdt3303

nxt2004

nxt2004

nxt2004

lgdt3303

Bridge Interface

cx23882

cx23883

flexcop

flexcop

flexcop

cx23882

cx23882

bt878

cx23882

Cypress FX2LP

cx23882

saa7135

saa7135

cx23881

VSB

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

QAM

yes

yes

no

no5

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

no6

yes

yes

yes

NTSC

yes

yes

no

no

no

yes

yes

yes

yes

no4

yes

no

yes

yes

Comp/S-video

yes

yes

no

no

no

yes

yes

yes1

yes

no4

yes

yes

yes

yes

Analog CC

yes2

yes

no

no

no

no2

no2

yes

no2

?

no2

?

?

?

PID filtering3

sw

sw

hw

hw

hw

sw

sw

sw

sw

sw

sw

sw

sw

sw

List Price7

N/A

$129

$408

N/A

$99

N/A

N/A

$89

$149

$149

$119

$1099

~$70

~$80

Note 1: Has a working comp/s-video port hidden behind the card-plate.
Note 2: The 5500 analog CC works, so the 3000 should too, but I haven't verified the 3000 personally. If you have, please remove this note.
Note 3: 'hw' = hardware, 'sw' = software. Hardware PID filtering allows the card to discard unwanted packets. This typically amounts to saving <10% of the bitrate of a 8-VSB or QAM-64 broadcast, and >55% of the bitrate of a QAM-256 broadcast.
Note 4: Hardware should allow it, but the driver has no support yet.
Note 5: The demodulator supports QAM-64/256, but the tuner can't handle cable frequencies.
Note 6: Some may have had sucess. Recent attempts using currently shipping boards have failed
Note 7: Prices shown in $US, rounded to the nearest $1, as found on the web on 2006-07-17. I didn't bother with the discontinued ones (shown "N/A"), as prices will vary on eBay.
Note 8: eBay price as of 2006-08-24.
Note 9: Model shown on web site "MTVHDA180" is the "AVerMedia AVerTVHD™ MCE A180 (white box)"; Price includes typical shipping.

Air2PC

The Air2PC cards usually consume less PCI and memory bandwidth than the other cards because they have a hardware PID filter. The hardware only handles a few streams, which may be limiting if collecting EIT data. The PID filtering is most useful when recording one program in a QAM-256 stream, or when recording low resolution streams. It doesn't save much bandwidth when recording an HDTV stream encoded with 8-VSB, since that set of streams consumes most of the bandwidth anyway.

DViCO

See DVICO.

Sky Digital

• http://www.skydigital.co.kr/en/

External Links

• http://www.bbti.us/products_air2pc_atsc_pci.htm Broadband Technologies Company site, Air2PC cards.
• http://www.pchdtv.com pcHDTV Company Site, pcHDTV HD-5500 card.
• http://www.ati.com/products/hdtvwonder/index.html ATI Technology Company site, ATI HDTV Wonder card.
• http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/ENG/Products/ DViCO Company site, Fusion HDTV products.
• http://www.aver.com/2005home/wheretobuy/estore/estore_bestseller.shtml AVer TV Company site, AVerTV HD A180 card.
• http://www.kworldcomputer.com/product/digital/001/atsc_110.htm KWorld Company site, KWorld ATSC 110 card.