Digital TV PVR Questions & Answers
Q:
Will it be legal to use a non-broadcast flag receiver after any flag requirement comes into force?
A: Yes. We aren't lawyers, but the consensus seems to be that there is nothing illegal about using a digital TV receiver that doesn't take notice of the broadcast flag after that date. It may, however, be illegal to distribute or sell such a card.
Q:
Will I need to upgrade my PC to work as a digital TV PCR?
A: A fairly recent one, with at least a 2-Ghz Pentium 4 or Athlon 2800+ processor or higher, at least 512MB of RAM, and an 80GB or bigger hard drive will probably be fine. For our step-by-step guide, we used a 2.6-GHz Pentium 4 system with 1GB of DDR333 RAM, but an even faster processor would have made some things (such as converting the recorded files to different resolutions) quicker and easier. ATI recommends at least a 1.2-GHz processor and 256MB of memory for its HDTV Wonder card, but frankly, that's a bit low.
Q:
Do I need a special antenna to receive digital TV signals?
A: No, but you might need to get a better one. Digital TV signals are in the same frequency band as the existing signals, so (despite what the nice salesman at the store told you) you don't have to buy a new one. But you might want to think about it: Digital TV signals tend to require a better antenna than analog signals. If you live close to a transmitter, you may not need more than a small antenna that sits on top of the TV. For instance, in the PC World office, we were able to pick up signals using the small set-top antenna that ATI bundles with its HDTV Wonder card, but that was because we could see the transmitter from the window. PC World Staff Writer Alan Stafford was able to get only a couple of stations from his home in San Francisco (a hill comes between his house and the transmitter); at my home 20 miles or so from the transmitter, I was unable to receive any stations with a set-top antenna. But with a good-size antenna in the attic, I picked up every area station that was transmitting digital TV. The FCC has a Web site that, when you enter your address, will show you which local stations are transmitting in digital format, and what type of antenna you might need to pick them up.
Q: Can I use these PC tuners to record HD programming from satellite or cable TV?
A: Generally speaking, no. Satellite TV companies transmit their channels in a digital format, but they use their own methods of encrypting the signal, and we aren't aware of any PC tuner that can decrypt and record these signals. Also, most HD satellite tuners have either a DVI or a component video output, and we don't know of any consumer-level cards that can capture and record such signals. Some cards can work with a digital cable TV standard called QAM, but most cable companies either don't use it or encrypt such signals, forcing you to use the set-top decoder box that you rent from them.
Q:
What kind of software will I need to build the digital TV PVR?
A: For this step-by-step, we chose to use KnoppMyth, a combination of Knoppix Linux and the Linux PVR software MythTV. It's the simplest way we've found to build a dedicated digital TV PVR, and MythTV has a huge range of features: It can search for programs by title, actor or description, read RSS news and weather feeds, show your digital photos, and play internet radio stations. Plus, KnoppMyth installs from a single CD, so you don't need to know Linux to install and run it.
Q: I'm not sure I'm ready to build a dedicated Linux box to record digital TV. Is there a Windows alternative?
A: Yes. ATI includes software with its HDTV Wonder card that can view and record digital TV signals, including HDTV ones. You can schedule recordings and pause live TV; the card also includes an analog TV tuner. We've tested it and found it was able to record digital TV signals with relative ease, although it did require a fairly fast PC to be able to record and play back HD video. Another alternative is the AccessDTV Digital Media Receiver, a PCI card that includes software that can record and display digital TV in Windows. We haven't reviewed this device, though.
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