ATSC PCI cards: Difference between revisions

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(add Kworld ATSC110)
(clarified hw/sw filtering, filled in some of the data I know about in the table, deleted OT MPEG decoding comments,)
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As of right now there are 12 confirmed working devices.
As of right now there are 12 confirmed working devices.


* The PCHDTV card
* The pcHDTV HD-3000 card
* The air2pc (1st gen)
* The air2pc (1st gen)
* The air2pc (2nd gen)
* The air2pc (2nd gen)
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* The AVerMedia AVerTVHD A180
* The AVerMedia AVerTVHD A180
* The Kworld ATSC110
* The Kworld ATSC110

The air2pc seems to take some work off the processor while I have read the PCHDTV uses 80-90% on an athalon64 3000.

My experience with capturing using the pcHDTV is that it uses 1.3% of CPU (azap + cat + cx88[0] dvb on an athlon64 3500). Actually watching live or captured streams does take a lot of CPU, though, especially without xvmc. --[[User:Mitchskin|Mitch]] 21:50, 14 May 2005 (CEST)

Using a HD-3000 on an Athlon XP 1800+ and GeForce 6600GT: watching live (mplayer competes with recording) 720p using mplayer -vo xvmc takes 45-60% cpu while 1080i causes frame drops and pretty much pegs the cpu at 100%. Capturing either takes very little CPU as posted by Mitch above.

Another data point on the HD-3000: using 866MHz Pentium III with GeForce FX 5200, recorded 720p is smooth with mplayer -vo xvmc but pegs CPU. Live 720p is watchable if jerky with -hardframedrop. 1080i is another story; it takes 10 seconds to play 9 seconds' worth of video.

The ATSC frontend of the DViCO cards has been tested with 8-VSB (OTA) and QAM-256 (Cable) in the US. Source code is in video4linux + dvb-kernel CVS and kernel sources 2.6.13 and later.


Here is a feature matrix to help keep track of what card does what:
Here is a feature matrix to help keep track of what card does what:
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|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| VSB || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| VSB || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes
|- align="center"
|- align="center"
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| QAM || yes || no || no || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || ?
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| QAM || yes || no || no[5] || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || yes || ?
|- align="center"
|- align="center"
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| NTSC || yes || no || no || no || yes || yes || yes || yes || no[4] || yes || no || yes
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| NTSC || yes || no || no || no || yes || yes || yes || yes || no[4] || yes || no || yes
|- align="center"
|- align="center"
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| Comp/S-video || ? || no || no || no || yes || yes || yes[1] || yes || no[4] || yes || yes || yes
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| Comp/S-video || yes || no || no || no || yes || yes || yes[1] || yes || no[4] || yes || yes || yes
|- align="center"
|- align="center"
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| Analog CC || ? || no || no || no || no[2] || no[2] || yes || no[2] || ? || no[2] || ? || ?
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"| Analog CC || no[2] || no || no || no || no[2] || no[2] || yes || no[2] || ? || no[2] || ? || ?
|- align="center"
|- align="center"
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"|PID filtering[3] || ? || hw || hw || hw || sw || sw || sw || sw || sw || sw || sw || sw
|style="background:#FFDEAD;"|PID filtering[3] || ? || hw || hw || hw || sw || sw || sw || sw || sw || sw || sw || sw
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* [1] Has a working comp/s-video port hidden behind the card-plate.
* [1] Has a working comp/s-video port hidden behind the card-plate.
* [2] Hardware should allow it, but the cx88 driver has no support yet.
* [2] Hardware should allow it, but the cx88 driver has no support yet.
* [3] 'hw' = hardware, 'sw' = software. Hardware PID filtering allows the card to discard unwanted packets, which typically amounts to half the 19.3 Mbps bitrate of an ATSC broadcast.
* [3] 'hw' = hardware, 'sw' = software. Hardware PID filtering allows the card to discard unwanted packets. This typically amounts to saving <10% of the bitrate of a 8-VSB or QAM-64 broadcast, and >55% of the bitrate of a QAM-256 broadcast.
* [4] Hardware should allow it, but the driver has no support yet.
* [4] Hardware should allow it, but the driver has no support yet.
* [5] The demodulator supports QAM-64/256, but the tuner can't handle cable frequencies.


The Air2PC cards usually consume less PCI and memory bandwidth than the other cards because they have a hardware PID filter. The hardware only handles a few streams, which may be limiting if collecting EIT data. The PID filtering is most useful when recording one program in a QAM-256 stream, or when recording low resolution streams. It doesn't save much bandwidth when recording an HDTV stream encoded with 8-VSB, since that set of streams consumes most of the bandwidth anywat.


The ATSC frontend of the DViCO cards has been tested with 8-VSB (OTA) and QAM-256 (Cable) in the US. Source code is in video4linux + dvb-kernel CVS and kernel sources 2.6.13 and later.


[[Category:Hardware]]
[[Category:Hardware]]

Revision as of 21:29, 27 February 2006

As of right now there are 12 confirmed working devices.

  • The pcHDTV HD-3000 card
  • The air2pc (1st gen)
  • The air2pc (2nd gen)
  • The air2pc hd5000 (3rd gen)
  • The DViCO FusionHDTV 3 GOLD-Q
  • The DViCO FusionHDTV 3 GOLD-T
  • The DViCO FusionHDTV 5 GOLD
  • The DViCO FusionHDTV 5 LITE
  • The DViCO FusionHDTV 5 USB GOLD
  • The ATi HDTV Wonder
  • The AVerMedia AVerTVHD A180
  • The Kworld ATSC110

Here is a feature matrix to help keep track of what card does what:

pcHDTV HD-3000 Air2PC 1st Air2PC 2nd Air2PC HD5000 3rd Fusion HDTV3 Gold-Q Fusion HDTV3 Gold-T Fusion HDTV5 Lite Fusion HDTV5 Gold Fusion HDTV5 USB Gold HDTV Wonder AVerTV HD A180 Kworld ATSC 110
Frontend or51132 bcm3510 nxt2002 lgdt3303 lgdt3302 lgdt3302 lgdt3303 lgdt3303 lgdt3303 nxt2004 nxt2004 nxt2004
Bridge Interface cx23882 flexcop flexcop flexcop cx23882 cx23882 bt878 cx23882 Cypress FX2LP cx23882 saa7135 saa7135
VSB yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
QAM yes no no[5] yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes ?
NTSC yes no no no yes yes yes yes no[4] yes no yes
Comp/S-video yes no no no yes yes yes[1] yes no[4] yes yes yes
Analog CC no[2] no no no no[2] no[2] yes no[2] ? no[2] ? ?
PID filtering[3] ? hw hw hw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw sw
  • [1] Has a working comp/s-video port hidden behind the card-plate.
  • [2] Hardware should allow it, but the cx88 driver has no support yet.
  • [3] 'hw' = hardware, 'sw' = software. Hardware PID filtering allows the card to discard unwanted packets. This typically amounts to saving <10% of the bitrate of a 8-VSB or QAM-64 broadcast, and >55% of the bitrate of a QAM-256 broadcast.
  • [4] Hardware should allow it, but the driver has no support yet.
  • [5] The demodulator supports QAM-64/256, but the tuner can't handle cable frequencies.

The Air2PC cards usually consume less PCI and memory bandwidth than the other cards because they have a hardware PID filter. The hardware only handles a few streams, which may be limiting if collecting EIT data. The PID filtering is most useful when recording one program in a QAM-256 stream, or when recording low resolution streams. It doesn't save much bandwidth when recording an HDTV stream encoded with 8-VSB, since that set of streams consumes most of the bandwidth anywat.

The ATSC frontend of the DViCO cards has been tested with 8-VSB (OTA) and QAM-256 (Cable) in the US. Source code is in video4linux + dvb-kernel CVS and kernel sources 2.6.13 and later.