HDTV card "Made for Linux" - comp.os.linux.advocacy

Check it out: http://www.pchdtv.com/ FINALLY! An HDTV product introduced for the Linux market, by and for the Open Source community! pcHDTVtm announces the limited release of its new HD-2000 HDTV pci card. Made for Linux at an eye popping price of just $198.89. The pcHDTVTM HD-2000 Hi Definition Television Card is the first digital television card to be produced especially for the Linux video hobbyist market. Shipped with the open source multimedia player Xine, the card provides a ATSC stream to the Xine mpeg2 decoder and playback. For More Information -- incognito last updated 8/18/2004 7:09pm http://kentpsychedelic.blogspot.com Texeme Corporation, Memetic Text Communication http://home.earthlink.net/~jabailo/texeme/

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 03:32:36 +0000, Artolemew Breckenridge wrote: > > Check it out: > > http://www.pchdtv.com/ > > FINALLY! An HDTV product introduced for the Linux market, by and for the > Open Source community! First, let me say it's great to hear. Quickly checking the site's FAQ, I find: Q: Will the HD-2000 card work with cable TV? A: No, The card is only for terrestrial broadcasts. Cable and Satellite reception are not supported. I'm sorry, but that greatly reduces the appeal of such a card. Linux people are looking for HD cards which will work with cable and ESPECIALLY sat signals. Paying $200 for a HD card, which only works with NTSC/ATSC signals, which requires a closed source driver, seems excessive. Worse, they state, "The driver is not compatable with glibc-2.3.2-27.9 and you will need to fall back to glibc-2.3.2-11.9. We are currently working on a fix for this and will post it in the downloads." Already, they have compatibility problems which effects RH9 users. While I hope them well, I have a hard time imagining this taking off until they support more than US broadcast HD TV. Heck, I live near a major US city and I doubt I get more than 4 channels in HDTV. Hardly worth the time to install, let alone a purchase. Cheers, Greg

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 03:32:36 GMT, Artolemew Breckenridge <Artolemew.Breckenridge@texeme.com> wrote: > >Check it out: > >http://www.pchdtv.com/ > >FINALLY! An HDTV product introduced for the Linux market, by and for the >Open Source community! What a joke!! From their own FAQ: Is the card an universal pci card? No, The card is a PCI 2.2 compliant 5-Volt card. Some new mother boards may not support 5-volt cards. How does cpu speed effect video quality? [...] We recommend systems with greater than 2.4GHz cpus to provide the greatest flexibility in the choice of video cards, deinterlacing algorithms and players with HD video streams. So, basically, your PC has to be fairly recent (2.4GHz or better) but not too recent because of the 5V limitation. Open Source in all its glory?

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 10:56:40 +0200, PastaVerde wrote: > Open Source in all its glory? What a dope. This has nothing to do with open source. Learn to read. The proper responce reads, "Closed source in all its glory". It's closed source and appears to be a no-so-good product to boot. Read my first response for more details. It's basically a HD tuner card which uses the host CPU for just about everything. I have a hard time seeing this sale, not because it has anything to do with Linux, but because the product just isn't that good and does not target an audience that is interested in it. It's a sure recipe to lose money; which has absolutely nothing to do with Linux. Cheers, Greg

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 00:52:15 -0500, Greg Copeland wrote: > I'm sorry, but that greatly reduces the appeal of such a card. Linux > people are looking for HD cards which will work with cable and > ESPECIALLY sat signals. I don't know... HDTV over satellite costs a lot more $$$ without a whole lot more content. For example, ESPN HD sounds pretty good to a sports fan, right? Check the schedule - only a one or two baseball and/or football games per week will be HD. Fans of other sports can pound sand. I recenty bought a $300 OTA HDTV receiver, and I think that's the way to go, for now (i.e. don't spent too much until the content gets more available). > (snip) > > Heck, I live near a major US city and I doubt I get more than 4 channels > in HDTV. Hardly worth the time to install, let alone a purchase. I get eight. 8)

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:28:31 -0500, chrisv wrote: > On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 00:52:15 -0500, Greg Copeland wrote: > >> I'm sorry, but that greatly reduces the appeal of such a card. Linux >> people are looking for HD cards which will work with cable and >> ESPECIALLY sat signals. > > I don't know... HDTV over satellite costs a lot more $$$ without a whole > lot more content. For example, ESPN HD sounds pretty good to a sports > fan, right? Check the schedule - only a one or two baseball and/or > football games per week will be HD. Fans of other sports can pound sand. > I hear ya, but keep in mind there are still some markets where HDTV is simply not available. With sat and cable, many more programs are available (still not tons). Also, keep in mind, that sat and cable companies are continuing to add HD content. In fact, there is not a sat service which specifically caters to HD consumers. So, while sat/cable may not be an ocean of HD content, for many consumers OTA HD content is still a desert. > I recenty bought a $300 OTA HDTV receiver, and I think that's the way to > go, for now (i.e. don't spent too much until the content gets more > available). Well, keep in mind that you purchased into a different market. A dedicated receiver, which works, is better than this card, which costs $200 and requires ~$1000 PC. Which, in turn, requires closed source drivers which also appear to be problematic for their target audience. Keep in mind that I'm trying to put things into perspective here. I know, for a fact, that HD sat/cable cards are in demand by Linux users. Cheers, Greg

Greg Copeland wrote: > On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:28:31 -0500, chrisv wrote: > >> On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 00:52:15 -0500, Greg Copeland wrote: >> >>> I'm sorry, but that greatly reduces the appeal of such a card. Linux >>> people are looking for HD cards which will work with cable and >>> ESPECIALLY sat signals. >> >> I don't know... HDTV over satellite costs a lot more $$$ without a whole >> lot more content. For example, ESPN HD sounds pretty good to a sports >> fan, right? Check the schedule - only a one or two baseball and/or >> football games per week will be HD. Fans of other sports can pound sand. >> > > I hear ya, but keep in mind there are still some markets where HDTV is > simply not available. With sat and cable, many more programs are > available (still not tons). Also, keep in mind, that sat and cable > companies are continuing to add HD content. In fact, there is not a sat > service which specifically caters to HD consumers. So, while sat/cable > may not be an ocean of HD content, for many consumers OTA HD content is > still a desert. > >> I recenty bought a $300 OTA HDTV receiver, and I think that's the way to >> go, for now (i.e. don't spent too much until the content gets more >> available). > > Well, keep in mind that you purchased into a different market. A > dedicated receiver, which works, is better than this card, which costs > $200 and requires ~$1000 PC. Which, in turn, requires closed source > drivers which also appear to be problematic for their target audience. > > Keep in mind that I'm trying to put things into perspective here. I know, > for a fact, that HD sat/cable cards are in demand by Linux users. > > Cheers, > > Greg More info on that card: From: Jack Steven Kelliher <jack.kelliher@pcHDTV.com> (pcHDTV) To: John Bailo <jabailo@earthlink.net> Date: Today 16:56:50 Hello, I can't say for sure since we did have some problems with Suse 8 but we will be doing a driver for Suse 9.1 next month. Also please note that we are out of stock on the HD-2000 card but will be introducing a very similar card the HD-3000 next month. Best Regards, Jack Kelliher pcHDTV, Inc. On Wed, 2004-08-18 at 21:34, John Bailo wrote: > Can I run the Linux card with Suse 9.1 ? -- Jack Steven Kelliher <jack.kelliher@pcHDTV.com> pcHDTV -- incognito last updated 8/18/2004 7:09pm http://kentpsychedelic.blogspot.com Texeme Corporation, Memetic Text Communication http://home.earthlink.net/~jabailo/texeme/