[linux-dvb] DVB questions

[Dennis Noordsij <dennis.noordsij@wiral.com>]

Hi,

Before I plunge a lot of money into a DVB card I have some questions :)

What exactly is the difference between DVB-T and DVB-C ? Technically I have 
cable at home, but it is no different than an antenna would be, except a few 
more channels. The VCR and TV have no clue wether it's cable or antenna. I 
can buy a so-called digibox to watch DVB using cable. Is that what the DVB-C 
refers to, or some other kind of connection designed for DVB? With a DVB-T 
card, can I just use the tv antenna (although it is a cable :) and receive 
DVB channels with it? (they are carried) (I'm in Finland) Sorry if that's a 
stupid question, but they're not cheap (not even the budget card) so I want 
to be sure.

I know the Nova-T is a budget card and doesn't have a MPEG2 decoder. I intend 
to use a TV with VGA in which plays existing stuff (divx, dvd, etc) from the 
computer in X on TV absolutely beautifully. 

Now, because I don't need an actual TV-out, will a 700 MHz Athlon be fast 
enough to do live viewing? (it can decode a DVD fine, but I understand the 
stream coming from the DVB-T card needs to be processed first before 
something like MPlayer will understand it). Time shifting live TV is not 
really necessary, and I guess some smart buffering fifo could somehow pull 
that off if I have a rainy afternoon somewhere (try snowy!) and I don't need 
more than a few minutes to shift. Most important is to be able to process and 
view the incoming stream using something like MPlayer in real time and 
preferably with audio and video in sync :) Second important is to be able to 
save the stream in a format that mencoder (mpeg2->divx) can work with to 
archive shows with the divx codec. Viewing recorded shows will almost always 
be using a different codec than mpeg2 so the hardware acceleration would be 
nice, but if the computer plays full size divx in great-enough-to-watch 
quality I guess I'll save the money and buy more diskspace with it :-)

I imagine OSD can be done the same way MPlayer now does it, because the movie 
is playing in an XVideo accelerated window I can overlay some text myself, 
maybe not alpha blended but hey :) and it will show up fine on tv.

Any other issues I have overlooked that would affect doing the above?
Many thanks for any help!
Kind regards
Dennis

 



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