[MEncoder-users] tv tuner card suggestions?

[Scott W. Larson]

Rich Felker wrote:
> I'm very doubtful that this will happen since no one has it except
> videophiles and such and there don't even seem to be digital
> broadcasts in many places. Also the crappy signal degredation will
> mean that many people who could receive analog TV (far from the
> station) will be unable to get digital TV at all.

Fortunately the situation is much better than that. Digital television
reaches over 90% of the U.S. population right now. With a few exceptions
(like in Denver for example), all television stations are simulcasting DTV
at full power on a separate channel from their NTSC broadcast. When the
analog shutdown happens, most of the stations that were broadcasting
analog on an upper VHF channel will move their digital broadcasts to that
channel which will have at least as much coverage as they did before.
Digital stations cause much less interference with each other than analog.

With fourth and fifth generation ATSC receivers, almost all of the
reception problems have been solved. There are still problems in urban
areas with extreme multipath. It's very common to receive perfect ATSC
signals from distant stations whose analog broadcasts are barely visible
at that distance. For the first time people are regularly watching digital
broadcasts from neighboring cities. In some areas it's easy to receive a
dozen digital stations with an indoor antenna.

About 7% of the population are watching translators in distant locations.
These will have to be converted to ATSC eventually although their fate
isn't clear. They may stay analog for a few more years.

As of March, all televisions entering the U.S. must have an ATSC tuner.
There are very few new NTSC-only televisions left. There still isn't an
inexpensive ATSC tuner on the market, but that should change as the analog
shutdown nears.

The FCC considered a phased shutoff of analog by region as they're doing
in Europe right now, but the U.S. is so large a similar plan would take
forever so they've chosen the more radical approach.