MyHD MDP-130 - Page 134

Yes, you're right it is the other way around (although playing the MyHD files does require changing their extension and importing them into Sage, which is a minor PITA.

Thanks for confirming OTA and QAM. Since I only have a MyHD-120, I can never remember that for certain.

To the best of my knowledge no one is supporting it. I just wanted to point out that it was valid even if not used contrary to the original statement. It has been a while since I read the write up on just what the ATSC standard covered but again if I remember it they could do 1080p OTA. I think they maintained the bandwidth requirements by dropping the framerate to 24 fps like a film source and then let the decoder do a 3:2 pull down to make the display happy. And yes it was progressive scan, not interlaced. Sorry if my memory is faulty.

MyHD covers everything currently broadcast that I know of. I'm quite happy with the hardware results if not most of the programming available. Doubt MIT can help that.

and if they don't use DVI output, they don't need it either. I was just flummoxed by the evident lack of understanding in that post and concerned that the poster was about to make some seriously bad investments because of ignorance.

I'd agree more research is probably in order to understand how things connect and otherwise work, but where they want OTA and QAM, the MyHD seems to be the only practical solution. Wouldn't you agree with that assessment?

And BTW, there's more information from the same poster in this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=595154

Yes. The other possibility (FusionHDTV) is still at the hobbist-toy stage and not practical for anyone whose primary interest is actual TV viewing. (This may change rather quickly, however, if Kei's posts about third-party support for Fusion cards become real products)

Latest version of the Play List Manager is in MYHD_Update. This one handles a Send To.

Thanks again, Kary!
That's exactly what I intend to do.
May also use MyHD to switch back and forth between OTA and QAM.
Have a great night and thank you again!!!

I realize I'm a newb and appreciate the patience and guidance, but I have spent considerable time researching and will continue to do so.

However, it's my understanding that I can use the MyHD to tune to record to my HTPC and then use advanced software of either the PC or scaling software of the GeForce 7800 GTX to output from the GTX via DVI to get the finest PQ, better than MyHD alone.

I realize the GTX is currently overkill given that I don't game, but if I retain the PC for even 5 years then this "future-proofs" me to the extent that software scalers further predictably improve as well as monitor capacity to resolve improves if not necessarily 1080i tuned source material.

Thanks

You'll need better heat sinks than the standard reference. I see noisey written all over the HTPC in STOCK REFERENCE form.

ASUS Extreme N7800GTX has an Arctic cooler already bolted on.

You did get the post that some PCI express Mboards / VGA / MYHD combinations are a problem? Not sure which ones but I'd look out for that.

So is 1080p going to provide any better resolution considering current source material? If not, it seems that it would be much easier and cheaper to stick with the MYHD output.

Wow...what a negative attitude. Not even a "Hey...neat idea! I'll forward it to the developers but I doubt they will put it on their list." Someone didn't take their medicine this morning, eh?

I know it could be easily done, they pick up files via network shares so why not via HTTP? I did manage to record a few TS files in TSReader but the MyHD card chokes on the 4:2:2 NBC NascarHD one, just freezes on the first frame. On the SD video files it plays but doesn't have any sound.

Oh well... I guess I'm finally taking the plunge and getting rid of the locked technology of the MyHD-130. See ya in the classifieds.....

Don't know. I suspect that if you had a large screen, a projector capable of it and a very good scaler you might see an improvement over the MyHD output. Since my projector won't support anything beyond what the MyHD will do I can't say for sure. As it is the MyHD creates an excellent picture providing the networks do their part which is not a given. I'm quite happy with it.

In any case you've taken my original statement far beyond the original intent. Someone had questioned whether 1080p was a real HD resolution. To the best of my knowledge it is part of the ATSC format even though no one is currently using it. I'll say no more.

Everyone's a newb when it comes to some aspect of HTPC, so don't worry about it.

As to your assessment that the MyHD's built-in picture is somehow deficient, that's really a matter of opinion. One thing the MyHD offers is very smooth playback. As far as overall quality, I've only just recently found something I like better (VRM9 through Sage). The MyHD video output is really very nice (although not 1080p).

That was the thing I mentioned, but Kei posted about it originally.

In another thread I took some heat for going AGP over PCI-e for my new motherboard purchase. Part of the reason I did it was that I didn't see an advantage to PCI-e with current video cards, and I didn't want to be cutting edge. Cutting edge causes problems with obscure products.

Well after I got my new setup, Kei posted about some MB/video card combinations not working with MyHD. Sort of made me fell vindicated.

Drivers for the FusionHDTV are included in recent Linux kernels. It's rock solid with MythTV in either ATSC or QAM mode (and has a lot more features: multiple tuner support, full guide integration, optional www based guide/scheduling, network playback, commercial removal, auto-transcoding, and of course full timeshifting).


There is a developer working on MyHD drivers for Linux. But, it's a much more complicated beast, and he's doing it completely on his own (DVico gave some assistance to the developers of the orignal FusionHDTV linux drivers). So, it's hard to say when/if there will be usable drivers.

So I guess that puts Fusion out of the strictly hobbyist-toy category into the hobbyist one of Linux. (Sorry, TJ, I couldn't resist. Must be that lack of "medicine" today. )

BTW, Kary's original main point (which I actually missed in my first reading--that medicine thing again, I suppose) would still stand--MyHD has the only practical OTA and QAM solution so far. Hmm...unless MythTV knows how to handle the twin inputs of the Fusion 3 Gold Q?

You can read all about how it was implemented, starting here. The ATI HDTV Wonder also just gained support, so that should make three.

VRM9 thru Sage? What codec? What video card?

With as much time as either you or I have spent on this forum discussing Fusion, MyHD, or other HTPC issues, we would be hard pressed to make a case that any of this is beyond the hobbyist level. Of course, there are ways to decrease the Linux learning curve. Knoppmyth is a pre-built Linux system with all the necessary Linux stuff with MythTV built-in. Also - no matter what happens with the broadcast flag, DRM, and related issues, the only one controlling my Linux/MythTV box will be me. I don't think I can count on Microsoft to always have my best interest at heart. And, I don't think any DVR vendor would include auto-commercial recognition/skipping like Myth has, for fear of litigation (it works great with digital broadcasts.. nice clean MPEG stream).

And, yes - the Linux drivers do handle both OTA and QAM.

I've read much about ATI software problems, that's why MyHD is still #1 of my options. Given that the HDTV towers are not close enough to my home to get sufficient OTA, I need QAM on the card as well. Maybe ATI is the way to go given that recent posts helped support this post that I've found in my research;

"in a strict sense, you can get video from the MyHD to the DVI output on your video card. However, it won't be full HD resolution. The hardware decoder cards (MyHD, accessDTV, etc.), decode the HD video on the card - not in software. There isn't enough bandwidth on the PCI bus to transfer uncompressed HD video from the HD tuner card to your video card, so it gets down converted to ~720x480 and then scaled back up to the size of your overlay window. Even if the final output resolution is 1920x1080 or 1280x720, a lot of detail from the original signal is lost in the process. The only way to watch full resolution out of the hardware decoder cards is via their onboard HD outputs.

The overlay outputs on these HD tuner cards is something I almost wish hadn't been made available. It's convenient if you just want to casually watch something while doing other things on the PC, but leads to a LOT of confusion when it comes to (especially new) users figuring out how to configure their systems."

I believe that I understand the above, but it seems to imply real time watching of HDTV w. tuning by MyHD and output by the video card. For real time, I willuse MyHD via component. However, using MyHD as tuner and then recording shows to the hard drive as PVR, can I then playback (anybody suggest software?) via video card? My new HP 5880 has 1080p inputs and future monitors will presumably have greater resolution such that being able to output via video card would be optimal.

Thanks again for so much from advanced members for help!!!

Hi,
Just a newb trying to help if I can. Got this from another post over the past weeks;

HDTVtoMPEG2 http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=HDTVtoMPEG2
HDTVtoMPEG converts HDTV MPEG2 transport stream files to standard MPEG2 video files playable (mostly) by media player, many software DVD player programs, and readable by video converter programs like FlaskMPEG and Vidomi. Excellent free tool for removing commercials splitting and combining TS and TP files. This version can strip substreams and find commercials automatically (most of the time). Easily Mark segments to be included and excluded when generating new file. Must have if you have a MyHD and archive video.
for FFDShow, that is done in software, so the video card has little to do with it - you need a better CPU and memory for FFDshow.

This is routinely done. I use TheaterTek 2 to playback .ts files. You video card is then doing the heavy lifting and converting to native rate. MyHD also allows you to play the .ts while it is being recorded.

-- Rich

My Fusion 3 died and I need a replacement that can to both OTA and Cable at the same time like the Fusion 3 and the MyHD130 appears to be exactly what I need.

I have one question before I order one though; Is the QAM feature 64 or 256 or both?

I tried looking through this thread but is freaking huge and most of the specs I have found just say "QAM" not which type.

Thanks

If OTA reception won't work for you, then your decision of which card to choose really comes down to MyHD MDP-130 or the Fusion card. From there, you need to decide if you are comfortable using the software that comes with the card or want to use 3rd party software. If you want to use 3rd party software, the choice is easy at the moment - Fusion will give you a lot more options.


If you're going to quote someone (me in this case), it's usually a good idea to give credit to the person.


It's pretty simple... If you want to stay entirely within the MyHD software, you can watch at full HD resolution using the HD output on the card or watch reduced resolution through your video card using the overlay window. If you're willing to use external software, you can certainly play recordings made with MyHD (or Fusion or accessDTV...) with other software via something like Theatertek 2.0.

While your monitor may have a 1080p input, there's a pretty big question of whether your video card will do a better job deinterlacing 1080i to 1080p or scaling 720p to 1080p or whether your display will do a better job taking the native 1080i or 720p and converting it on its own. It seems to me that you're looking at the numbers and simply assuming that if you convert 1080i to 1080p it will automatically be better. And quite frankly this part of the discussion really belongs in another thread as it isn't MyHD specific - it would apply to all the HD tuner cards that create transport stream files.

Nvidia Purevideo, Nvidia 6600GT.

I've never read much about the ATI, but it has dual inputs? Also, are you saying this can handle the dual inputs of the Fusion cards that have dual inputs?

But again, most third party software for Fusion does not do QAM.

This last point is an excellent point. I wasted money buying a PS DVD player. Basically I could not tell a difference between the DVD player deinterlacing and my TV deinerlacing. (And then when I started using a HTPC shortly thereafter, it really became a waste of money!)

Hi Lee,

The difference is that MythTV detects commercials for you.. You don't have to manually go through and mark them and re-save the file (which is great for archiving, but defeats the purpose of commercial skipping for viewing purposes).

When MythTV saves a program, it runs a background task, mythcommflag, which scans the program for commercials. You can configure it to remove them from the file, or to just flag them as commercials. I just flag the commercials, just in case there is a false positive - I don't want it deleting real program content. Then, on playback, when it gets to a commercial it skips
that whole chunk of time, and all you see is a brief OSD indicator saying "3:28 skipped" or something to that effect.

In my experience, this works extremely well with my digital/HD programs. On my SD programs, I occasionally get som false positives (content mis-marked as commercials), probably because my SD channels are a bit "dirty", so the change to commercial is not as clear.

The net effect is great.. It's like watching the DVDs of movie programs (except with a much better picture). Where the commercials are, you just get a brief fade out / fade in.

I am curious about the answer to this question.

I use MYHD to upscale my DVD's to 720P (native resolution on my 52" DLP) and the PQ is noticably better than with my Progressive Scan standalone player.

So much so that the Standalone is now in it's box and retired to a closet.

Now that Sharp (for instance) has the 45" 1080P LCD TV, I would love to hear if anyone has done a PQ comparison of 1080i/720P material upscaled by the MYHD to 1080P on their 1080P display.

I doubt we will ever see 1080P material so I wonder about paying the premium for 1080P TV's but if cards like MYHD produce a noticeably better picture upscaling to 1080P then it would be worth the cost delta.

Anyone with a 1080P display and a MYHD care to chime in?

Thanks

He was talking about different cards... The first link was to a discussion on the dual inputs of the Fusion3. The second statement was separately saying that Linux drivers have recently been developed for the ATI HDTV Wonder card.


One thing with the ATI card I'm not sure about is whether it supports QAM. The same Linux driver/components support QAM with similar cards, it would be interesting to see if it works with the ATI.