HDTV coming to Sweden - please help hires newbee!

[kamrat]

It seems very likely that the football world cup will be broadcast in hires via the DVB-T network in sweden this summer. It will be coded in MPEG4.

As I understand things this will just be like any other datastream in one of the DVB-T muxes. My question is therefore - Do I need a special HDTV DVB-T card/box? Or can I use my Hauppague Nova-T-card with the appropriate drivers and codecs?
If not - why do I need another card? What is different in the hardware?
Also will HDTV in DVB-T work with mediaportal?

I'd really appriciate if someone could help me understand the relationship between the hardware, card-drivers, codecs and MP when it comes to HDTV.

[rich710]

Because you are from sweden I think you find a lot information on http://www.minhembio.com/forum/, there is one thread that list new hardware specific for HDTV (mpeg4) http://www.minhembio.com/forum/index...21238&hl=mpeg4

[kamrat]

Great! Thanks! I'll look through it!

Still - it would be interesting if someone with the technological insight could try to explain why not all DVB-T cards work with HD. Should this not just be a driver issue? Also, how does MP handle HD? Just like any other source? Can I still use Nvidias pure video codec when watching tv? It is supposed to handle HDTV. Does it handle Mpeg4?

[ziphnor]

Originally Posted by kamrat

Still - it would be interesting if someone with the technological insight could try to explain why not all DVB-T cards work with HD. Should this not just be a driver issue? Also, how does MP handle HD? Just like any other source? Can I still use Nvidias pure video codec when watching tv? It is supposed to handle HDTV. Does it handle Mpeg4?

With DVB-S a new modulation was introduced for HDTV, requiring some new tuners. With DVB-C no such changes appears to take place and only cards with an onboard mpeg2-decoder(which amusingly enough are the expensive ones) should have problems beyond driver updates. Whether or not these updates are forthcoming is of course a differnet manner

I dont know what the status is with DVB-T though.

[kamrat]

Thanks! That was the kind of info I was looking for. Anyone know more about DVB-T?

[Forgotten Illustrator]

MPEG-3 was designed for High-definition television transmission but as it later transpired that MPEG-2 would be more than adequate for the needs proposed by High-definition service providers, MPEG-3 was abandoned.

MPEG-4 was initially specified for very low bit rates. It can support video resolution of 176x144 at bit rates of as low as 4,800 and 64,000 bps.


With a SD of 720 x 486, 30 Hz it has a bite rate of 5 – 10 Mbps and with HD of 1920 x 1080, 30 Hz 30 – 40 Mbps. The PCI card has to demultiplexer(split Audio and Video) the transmitted singal and some other stuff in realtime.

The difference between a SD and HD card?
well... it all just comes down to the cost of components. with a SD card u dont need as much speed/procession to demultiplex etc, So why spend more on components. This results in a product for the lower end of the consumer market but unable to handle HD

I hope this gives the answer your looking for.

[kamrat]

That's interesting! This makes me wonder if the same applies to the ability to record the .ts-stream from a whole MUX (4-5 SD channels)? Is this also only possible with a HD-card? I was under the impression that all DVB-T-cards could potentially do this. Or does the bottleneck of components only exist when the channels are being demuxed? But is this not done by the CPU and not the hardware on the card?
Forgive me if I am confusing things. I really don't know much about these things but I am very curious.

Bottom line - I thought all the the DVB-card did was deliver a datastream of the whole MUX and the demuxers, drivers and codecs did the rest using the CPU.

[Forgotten Illustrator]

the data steram still has to changed form a frequency(s) to a digital data stearm.

you may ask me that, you thought it was already a digital singal? no its not a 1s and 0s transmitted singal. say you wish to get 1010 they just cahnge the phase of the frequency by 30 deg. mind you its more complect them that. this is were the speed and procession is needed.

If your using Media portal to watch TV the MPEG-2 is still decoded on the card after coming form the demultiplexer not by the CPU. once again speed is needed for HD bit rates

You sound like you unstanded the terms related with this topic, so here a PDF link is used to get my prev post info. it talks about MPEG and want is done on a PCI for DVB plus a HOLE lot of other s**t

p.s opps i forgot to add link
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/teaching/dcn...03-akester.pdf

[SweMart]

I have some inside information regarding the World Cup and Boxer.

Boxer will probably not broadcast the World Cup in HDTV, their argument is that there aren't any receivers that can handle HDTV/MPEG4 - which of course isn't true.

Cheers,
Martin