mythtv and digital tv

[Ben Scott]

On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 6:36 PM, Frank DiPrete <fdiprete at comcast.net> wrote:
> I like the HDHomeRun card ...

  Just to make sure it's clear, the HDHomeRun isn't a card, it's an
external box (about the size of a cigar box).  It uses a wall-wart
type power supply transformer.

> If the card had hardware encoding it would be perfect.

  Encoding or decoding?

  For digital broadcast -- be it cable or ATSC OTA -- the stream is
already encoded and compressed as part of the transmission process.
There's no need for an encoder.

  The HDHomeRun is digital only; it doesn't even have an NTSC tuner.
So, to the best of understanding, the HDHomeRun has no use for a
hardware encoder.  The HD-5500 does have an NTSC tuner; I don't know
if it has a hardware encoder or not.  Presumably, if you're buying an
HD-5500, the plan is to switch to digital TV, so NTSC shouldn't
matter.

  For decoding, I believe you'd still be able to use the "small quiet
diskless box frontend".  The one thing I'm not sure about is: I expect
not all hardware decoders are created equal.  It may be the decoder in
your front-end box can't handle this new-fangeled high-def stuff.

-- Ben