well unless there is something very strange going on over there in the states, it actually is, the only difference is some companys scramble their channels so only their set-top boxes can decode it.
Digital cable is not the same standard as HDTV.
But dont stress, some smart linux coders have made a version of xawtv called xawtv-decrypt, which uses software to descramble the channel.
The digital tuner cards are perfectly suitable to digital cable or sat signals. I know of people here who have PVR-350's and can watch foxtel digital without a problem, they just cant record anything yet because the add-ons to xawtv havnt yet been made as a patch or add-on to other software, such as mencoder.
If you want to see if this works, you need a digi tuner card, and if you can tune into the channel and hear the audio but the picture is all messed up - then it will work but you just need xawtv-decrypt, and if you really want to you can start coding up a patch for other recording/viewing software (or google really hard 'cos someone may have already done it).
im more than familar with the difference between analogue and digital. and digital is all about what you see and hear rather than how it gets there (but yes its transmission is completely different), again unless america is really screwed up - its the same, digital is digital be it free-to-air or subscribe-only. like i said before some companys (such as foxtel here in oz) scramble some (most) of their channels but that is the only difference. the interaction you talk about, ie opting for a PPV programme, is available on all formats of digital TV. HDTV also includes cable and sat subscription-only services. the only reason you may not see the difference is because your external box supplys a "dumbed-down" analogue signal from your digital one. If you had a digital TV and if your external tuner box has a digital output then you would notice the quality difference.
The word digital is misleading. The basic cable is an analogue signal. The digital cable is digital to the cable box, which then runs analogue (NTSC) to the TV. If I connect the freevo box to the cable box, then I will be able to receive my channels fine with the WinTV tuner card (tuning on ch 3, I believe, just like a VCR or a DVD player). I won't be able to tune the channels at that point, though... not without using IR.
"Digital" service is more about how the service gets to you than what you actually receive on the TV (unlike HDTV). Using the digital cable, I can order a PPV movie using the on screen guide without having to call and have them enable it. It's a little more tolerant of signal noise, too, compared to analogue cable. Quality, as far as I can otherwise tell, is the same.
Again, thats why you would use a HDTV digital tuner card, since it supports all the human interaction, multiple audio/video feeds per channel, tv guide channels, and other similar features which sets digital tv apart from analogue. (yes, digital cable *IS* HDTV, just not free-to-air)
Also, if you really dont get any better video/audio quality from your cable providers using digital, you are getting ripped off big time! I know you have foxtel there, and i know foxtel here offer HDTV over digital with all the bells and whistles one would expect from digital TV. (ie, my friends with foxtel digi can select what view they want when the crickets on, and choose if they want the pommy accent commentators or the aussie ones :p - and its a awesome picture (something like 2800x2400 pixels) with AC3 5.1 channel sound)
well, maybe i read your q wrong, or maybe you needed to be more specific, but to me it sounded like you hadnt done anything yet and had no idea how to. the freevo docs talk about using lirc, and from lirc's website you would find that they can send IR signals. from there you would follow the LIRC docs to setup lirc, capture the IR signal from your remote control, and use lirc to play it back. its then just a matter of *somehow* (ive never done it) setting up freevo to use lirc's "rc" program as your channel changing program (ie: "rc SEND_ONCE <remote controls config'd name> Power" - where Power is the name you give to the learned button of your remote control)I would submit that trying to actually be able to use more than a few (73, a few duplicated at that, and others in Spanish) channels via freevo, is a freevo question. Otherwise there wouldn't be a FAQ entry about how to do it... one that left me wondering about IR hardware to use with freevo... which is exactly what I asked about.
As far as hardware to use, Ive only ever use the homebrew version, they can be built with less than $10 in parts, and they are that simple you can get away without using a PCB or soldering, just twist the wires together and insulate.
the faq does state that freevo uses lirc dosnt it? seriously thats a question not a statement, i havnt read the faq for the last few versions but it did state that once, and i cant see why it wouldve changed.Maybe I wasn't 100% clear, because I already read the FAQ entry, and was looking for more detailed information than was mentioned there. I also assumed (bad idea) that others on the list would have done so already and understand in context what I was trying to accomplish, and why it would be necessary.
and i wouldnt be surprised if there are people out there on this list who have succesfully used lirc to transmit IR signals to their external boxes via freevo, but from what i gathered you didnt even know lirc sent signals, so you werent asking "how do i use rc as my channel changing program", you were asking "what software sends IR signals" which as ive said before is well documented and nothing to do with freevo.
how about installing lirc, set it all up, get to the point where you can manually run rc to change channels, and post a new q asking "how do i use rc as my channel changing app" - you might get somewhere since you've already done something towards what you want.Once I get it working I'll update the FAQ entry with more suggestion so you can just tell the next guy RTFFAQ, and it'll all be there.
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