[pvrusb2] pvrusb2 & QAM [was: IR receiver does not see anything]

[Mike Isely]

On Wed, 6 Jun 2007, Ryan Penn wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Does anyone know if it's possible to tune QAM signals using the
> WinTV-PVR-USB2 on Linux? I'm interested in this because of recently
> reading this:
> http://slashdot.org/articles/07/06/05/1952251.shtml
>
> Thank you,
> Ryan

Ryan:

First, if you're starting a new thread, then start a new thread.  It
will make things easier for others who later on want to search the mail
archive.

To answer your question, the PVR USB2 device is an analog tuner not a 
digital receiver.  Said another way, the PVR USB2 is designed to receive 
standard analog over-the-air video, demodulate it, digitize it, compress 
it, and deliver the bits to your computer.

QAM is a digital standard, and you need a QAM-capable digital tuner 
(e.g. a pcHDTV card) to receive such a signal.  A digital tuner is a 
different type of animal; such a device just needs to do the 
demodulation step; a QAM cable broadcast is already an mpeg bit stream 
so once a digital signal has been demodulated the resulting bit stream 
can go to the processor.  You need a digital tuner to receive a digital 
signal such as QAM.

  -Mike


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