Set top boxes for other DTV systems?

[cd637299]

I think I was looking at another post here, and I got to wondering....

Let's fast-forward a few years....Suppose that E-skip here in Florida was coming from a country in Central America that is using a different DTV standard than ATSC. Are there, or will there be, set-top boxes for my analog TV that would possibly be able to pull in these signals?

Will there be "multisystem" set top boxes?

Most of all, will there be other countries that, when their system takes hold, will use 54-88 MHz for their DTV like the US/Canada/Mexico?

Personally, I say no.....Even the US ATSC system originally was gonna phase out channels 2-6.

Are there any Web links about this?

cd

 

[spunker88]

Wikipedia is probably the best source for that, even though it can be edited by anyone. ;D They have some nice colored world maps corresponding to what digital TV method the country uses. It sounds like Cuba hasn't decided yet but they are leaning towards DVB-T. In Central America there is a mix towards the south of ISDB and DVB-T.

As far as converter boxes go, you can find them online but they will require a little work and who knows if they are DX grade. DVB-T seems to be easier to find as its widely used in Europe, etc. I found boxes on eBay and Dealextreme (a Chinese electronics site that sells internationally). The DVB-T boxes they sell appear to do PAL/NTSC output via RCA. The boxes don't have a 75ohm F coaxial input, so you would have to adapt the antenna input. Also they appear to ship with a 240v European power adapter, so you'd have to provide your own 120v AC to DC transformer, which may not be a bad thing since they probably ship it with a cheap noisy switching adapter. I imagine the box itself runs off something around 12v. With Australia and England on DVB-T these boxes should have English as an option.

DVB-t:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/dvb-t-receiver-with-remote-controller-129641?item=4#open full view
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/dvb-t-tv028-hd-digital-terrestrial-receiver-black-101585?item=15

The other broadcast method being used in the area looks to be ISDB-T which is used in South America and Japan. Interestingly enough they have a box for ISDB-T that appears to have 75 ohm coax input and a US style power plug. It would appear to require no modifications to work in the US, but you may have to deal with Spanish menus.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/isdb-t-digital-television-tv-receiver-box-47016?item=12

And as far as channels used, we will have to see what ATSC adopters like Mexico, etc do. Will they use more power on VHF-L to try to overcome issues or will they still have the same issues the US is having and prefer UHF.

 

[Darth_vader]

I think probably the "easiest"* way to obtain a truly multi-standard digital television receiver is to obtain a fairly recent and cheap PC, then add the appropriate PCI tuner boards and preferrably GPL-licenced decoder/demodulator software, and a video board with S-video AND/OR DVI outputs. This way other codecs and transmission systems could be added as they become available or are needed by simply installing the proper, preferrably GPL-licenced, software package for said system. A hard drive can also give it DVR capabilities.

I think the "Myth-TV" software package can do all of this, but I'm not entirely certain if it supports multiple digital TV standards on one common tuner card or not. Considering that most if not all tuner boards these days use some combination of DSP and software-defined radio technology, I can't imagine why it wouldn't.

* If it's not the "easiest", then, it's the most practical or feasible way I can think of at this point in time.

 

[Darth_vader]

(MBE--my above post is deprecated by this one; please delete.)

I think probably the "easiest"* way to obtain a truly multi-standard digital television receiver is to obtain a fairly recent and cheap PC, then add the appropriate PCI tuner boards and preferrably GPL-licenced decoder/demodulator software, and a video board with S-video AND/OR DVI outputs. This way other codecs and transmission systems could be added as they become available or are needed by simply installing the proper, preferrably GPL-licenced, software package for said system. A hard drive can also give it DVR capabilities.

The "Myth-TV" software package does support ATSC/QAM and DVB, but I don't know if it suports multiple digital TV standards on one common tuner card or not, or if other packages are available to give it support for other "exotic" systems like ISDB or DMB. Considering that most if not all tuner boards these days use some combination of DSP and software-defined radio technology, I can't imagine why it wouldn't at least be possible.

* If it's not the "easiest", then, it's the most practical or feasible way I can think of at this point in time.