ATI TV Wonder Elite

[Joe DeFuria]

Please...please....someone make a version of something like this that supports CableCard...

Please!?

http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2005/4810.html

 

[BRiT]

Are there ANY PC tv-tuner cards out there that do?

 

[Bjorn]

Please...please....someone make a version of something like this that supports CableCard...

Please!?

http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2005/4810.html

I want something like this that supports DVB-T (terrestrial - digital). Cause the analog TV transmissions is being shutdown here in Sweden. The cards also needs to have dual tuners on one card and/or the ability to share the CI (CAM + card) module between them.

This card f.e : http://www.twinhan.com/news_releases_2.asp?newsid=71
But with dual tuners, the CI thing and HDTV support. And at the price of say, 150$. Is that to much to ask for ?

 

[T2k]

Please...please....someone make a version of something like this that supports CableCard...

Please!?

http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2005/4810.html

I want something like this that supports DVB-T (terrestrial - digital). Cause the analog TV transmissions is being shutdown here in Sweden. The cards also needs to have dual tuners on one card and/or the ability to share the CI (CAM + card) module between them.

This card f.e : http://www.twinhan.com/news_releases_2.asp?newsid=71
But with dual tuners, the CI thing and HDTV support. And at the price of say, 150$. Is that to much to ask for ?

I have some MyHD or FusionHD II laying around here, somwhere...

 

[wireframe]

Nice to see an actual product already announced. I first read about the Theater 550 chip some weeks back and got very excited about promises of improved quality and hardware MPEG encoding. This is definitely something I want in my PC, rather than an all-in-one solution. My only fear is that it will be PAL and NTSC specific. Having lived with multisystem TVs and gadgets for most of my life, it really bothers me when products are specific to one type. When even an integrated VIVO chip can do both PAL and NTSC it really baffles me that some products still feature a hardware jumper to switch format. You'd think that by now there would be automated sensors to detect signal so you would not even have to use combo-boxes to set it. A TV Wonder Elite with PAL/NTSC support would be a perfect product for me.

Update:

I see now that the Sapphire Theatrix (Theater 550 Pro) offers PAL/NTSC + FM tuner. I hope this means what I think it does.

Update 2:

It seems the Sapphire offers only composite video-in (and S-video out). This is so annoying. Their brochure states "SVIDEO and Composite Video Input" in one place and "Composite Input ... S-Video output" in another.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Are there ANY PC tv-tuner cards out there that do?

Not that I'm aware of.

On a related note...descrambling can obviously be a software solution. Does anyone know what the current "plan" is for PC decoders?

1) Have the PC decoder accept physical CableCards. (Via break-out box or drive pay peripheral.)
2) Have the cable provider sell / distribute software to be installed on the PC to enable descrambling on supported Tuners.

I'm sure the PC Hardware manufacturer's would much rather see option 2, while the cable providers would prefer option 1.

Anyone know what direction is actually being taken?

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

Are there ANY PC tv-tuner cards out there that do?

Not that I'm aware of.

On a related note...descrambling can obviously be a software solution. Does anyone know what the current "plan" is for PC decoders?

1) Have the PC decoder accept physical CableCards. (Via break-out box or drive pay peripheral.)
2) Have the cable provider sell / distribute software to be installed on the PC to enable descrambling on supported Tuners.

I'm sure the PC Hardware manufacturer's would much rather see option 2, while the cable providers would prefer option 1.

Anyone know what direction is actually being taken?

I don't think the cable companies will ever really want to move away from the physical cards as it retains the control of who has access to the decryption method, whereas if it was software it would be far easier for it to get distributed illegally.

I have been having a quick look at cable decoding on a PC, as what I would like to be able to do is setup a PC PVR system (probably using MythTV) as a replacement for my NTL cable box (as it is utter pants!) and the only real stumbling block is that the card in my set top box is paired with the set top box so I can't simply plug it into a DVB-C card. Unfortunatly it seems that NTL don't distribute the cards seperatly and unpaired from a box. So the only other option would be to set up an analog video capture card on the output of the STB and use an IR transmitter to control the STB, unfortunatly this would mean still using the NTL STB which as I mentioned is rubbish.

CC