[Tfug] Radio/TV cards?

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Harry,

--- On Fri, 9/28/12, Harry McGregor <micros at osef.org> wrote:

> > I'm looking for hardware so I can receive 2 AM/FM radio stations
> > and 2 broadcast (CATV or OTA) video channels.
>
> CATV may or may not work without a DTA or Cable Box,
> depending on if Cox/Comcast has decided to encrypt QAM
> channels.

I think there are some devices that support the encryption
(perhaps a "deal" with the cable providers?).

But, I'm not really keen on "premium channels" (i.e., the
sorts of things that would be encrypted?).  We watch very
little (broadcast) "TV" as it is -- esp in light of how
ridiculous the "local fare" is!  :-/  (No, we're not
sports nuts, news junkies, soap addicts, etc. -- and
unlikely to become such)
 
> I know comcast has dropped analog channels, and gone to
> DTAs, and I am rather sure Cox has a well.
> 
> The most "reliable" would be ATSC OTA.
> 
> Personally I like the HD HomeRun which is ethernet based, I
> may even be able to dig mine up for you to try.  We

Cool!  The fact that it sits *outside* a machine is a huge
plus, IMO.

> dropped CATV about 2 or 3 years ago, and I still have not
> been able to get time/will/$ to get a antenna put up on the
> top of our house mast (huge iron pipe that goes from 15 feet
> above the roof all the way to the basement, no clue
> why....).

The little OTA content that we watch has been frustrating.
We are reasonably close to the (Mt Graham?) broadcast
towers (roughly Udall Park) and have almost a perfect
line-of-sight to them -- but for a tree in a neighbor's
yard.  High winds (esp with rain!) invariably lead to
lost-of-signal.  And, I'm sure they wouldn't take kindly
to my showing up with a chain saw "after dark", some evening!

<grin>

(Really puzzling when you'll be able to receive some
channels but not others -- broadcast from the same
complex!  E.g., 6 but not 27, etc.  Of course, different
pieces of the spectrum but that's no consolation when
you're trying to tune in one instead of the other!)

Unlike you, we don't have a ready-made mast to exploit.
And, I'm leary about putting up something that is likely
to act as a lightning rod.  Also, aesthetic issues
(I've been pretty obsessive about having no wires, conduits,
etc. on the outside of the house and the idea of an antenna
sticking up feels like it would be an eyesore given the lines
of the house)

Currently, we have an antenna indoors that works reasonably
well (given the previously mentioned caveats).  I am looking
into moving it onto the roof but *low* -- behind that "wall"
that surrounds the roof (flat roof) so it is not noticeable.
(though that still leaves the issue of grounding...)
 
> I also have some PCI capture cards, I will try and dig them
> all up this weekend.  Bug me via direct email Sunday or
> Monday

Cool!
 
> FM radio can be done by a lot of the cheap analog card, such
> as the BTTV based card.

Yes, I had thought "TV+radio" might be a viable option.
I figure we aren't going to need to "perceive" more than
two "media sources" (radio+radio, radio+tv, tv+tv) at
any given time (though two *are* in use surprisingly
often!)
 
> AM radio gets more tricky, very few cards or devices capture
> it...

<frown>  Should be reasonably easy to accommodate.  I will
guess it is just not a sought after feature?
 
> > Also, any idea as to the approximate resource load that their
> > uses entail?
> 
> ATSC and QAM are basically just moving bits, there is no
> encoding going on since it's already mpeg2.

I'd have to do some processing (essentially transcoding) to
use it so there is some concern over the actual implementation.
E.g., a network based box has latency issues as well as how
it deals with congestion, etc.
 
> Radio is very low utilization of course, since it's just
> audio.

So, its a complete radio?  I've seen some implementations
where software handled portions of the receiver...

Ack!  Too much to learn!  :-/

Thanx!
--don