PDTV vs HDTV?

[TigerLord]

I looked over the Newbie's FAQ (since I am very new to DVB...) .

I was wondering what was the difference between PDTV and HDTV ? I know I can get HDTV through a special reciever with my cable provider, I never heard PDTV before except in the name of the a tv show I could get ...

From what I have read and seen, you must plug the the cable wire directly into the DVB card and not from the receiver (using a s-video cable let's say) to the card like I thought you had ...

I do like to cap TV Shows for my own enjoyment, but is it worth investing in a DVB card if I'm not even certain to get PDTV/HDTV around?

Well basically HDTV brings you the best, but to what price ? I do have regular digital TV right now...

[Doom9]

I honestly don't know what PDTV is either but I suppose a quick google search can help. However, we've recently installed DVB at home so I can tell you something about that. If you want to capture digital content, you should always have the proper digital receiver card right in your PC, so that you can get the stream that is broadcast. Of course, you can also connect a DVB receiver (or HDTV for that matter) to your PC using an analog input, then capturing becomes pretty much the same as with analog TV.
The same will certainly also apply to HDTV. Perhaps there are a few standalone receivers with HDs that can capture a stream in its original form and which you can then download from your PC, but the capture card seems to be the cheaper solution. As an example: I paid 66€ for a DVB-S card for my PC. The two receivers we have at home were significantly more expensive, and don't even have an optical digital audio output or a built-in HD.

However, DVB seems to be a moot point for you since it's a Euro centric standard and there's no HDTV in that area. HDTV enabled areas do not have DVB as far as I know.

[crOOk]

PDTV mens Pirate Digital TV. I think pirates (REAL experts...) capture it when the studios send their material to the TV stations before the show is even broadcasted.

[pr0nandy]

Originally posted by crOOk
PDTV mens Pirate Digital TV. I think pirates (REAL experts...) capture it when the studios send their material to the TV stations before the show is even broadcasted.

PDTV Capures are dvb-streams encoded to either xvix or svcd.
PDTV = Pure Digital TV.

[Herske]

Originally posted by Doom9
However, DVB seems to be a moot point for you since it's a Euro centric standard and there's no HDTV in that area. HDTV enabled areas do not have DVB as far as I know.

No, DVB is not euro centric. Every country (except five: USA, Japan, S. Korea and others I can't remember) is using DVB as a standard.

[insane822]

pdtv == sdtv. aka fox widescreen. someone yell at me and say i'm wrong. I've never seen the term pdtv used anywhere except from "tv groups".

[craigpro]

hey all,

sorry for the newbie question, but does anyone know an easy (preferably one program) way to convert from HDTV / SDTV to DivX/XviD?

I've got an Avermedia DVB-T and there is some stuff coming on TV that I'd like to convert and upload for other users on bittorrent/usenet.

Usually I tend to use Vegas Video to convert from the HDTV / SDTV (majority of broadcasts here in Australia as SDTV) to DVD compliant MPEG2 PS, so I can then burn them to DVD; and it's an overnight encoding job.

Any help most appreciated, I'm searching through other forums etc. yself, but so far no luck.

cheers,

Gizmomelb

[timecop]

> I've got an Avermedia DVB-T and there is some stuff coming on TV
> that I'd like to convert and upload for other users on
> bittorrent/usenet.

While the entire purpose of this group might seem like pirating content, it is not allowed to be openly discussed in this way.

So, your question would need to be rephrased in the way of:

"I've got an Avermedia DVB-T and there is some stuff coming on TV
that I'd like to record for my personal viewing and make copies on
CD-R/DVD-R (and burn them at 2x on 1x media, shafting the man), so
that I can watch them few years from now".
</sarcasm>

[dRD]

Originally posted by Doom9
However, DVB seems to be a moot point for you since it's a Euro centric standard and there's no HDTV in that area. HDTV enabled areas do not have DVB as far as I know.

Most DVB cards can already capture HDTV-spec'd DVB streams, as broadcasted by Euro1080 (http://www.euro1080.tv/), the first HDTV channel in Europe. So, DVB (-S, -T, -C and -H -- DVB-H is for mobile devices like Nokia 7700) is simply a broadcasting standard set, which itself doesn't even define the strict resolution or encoding for the video (DVB-H uses, AFAIK, MPEG-4).

[Herske]

The allowed resolutions are very well defined in the dvb /s/c/t standard.

[Pyscrow]

Originally posted by timecop
> I've got an Avermedia DVB-T and there is some stuff coming on TV
> that I'd like to convert and upload for other users on
> bittorrent/usenet.

While the entire purpose of this group might seem like pirating content, it is not allowed to be openly discussed in this way.

So, your question would need to be rephrased in the way of:

"I've got an Avermedia DVB-T and there is some stuff coming on TV
that I'd like to record for my personal viewing and make copies on
CD-R/DVD-R (and burn them at 2x on 1x media, shafting the man), so
that I can watch them few years from now".
</sarcasm>

Many sporting and other public events in Australia are not copyrightable by the broadcaster,(unless they have paid for the rights, like professional footbal games, olympics etc) so I am sure that it was he is talking about copying and sharing ;)

[dRD]

Originally posted by Herske
The allowed resolutions are very well defined in the dvb /s/c/t standard.

I meant that DVB itself doesn't state exact, written-on-stone strict resolution/s (D1, 1080i, QCIF can all be used and still fit under "DVB" title) , encoding methods (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 all fit under criteria "supported video encoding methods by DVB specs") and audio encoding (at least MPEG-1 audio layers I and II, surround MPEG-2 supported -- AC3 is not actually part of "DVB specs" even that everybody uses it) and its (physical, such as transmission methods, etc) definitions allow easily broadcasting higher than usually used resolutions. Only problem is that receiving devices need to support the higher resolution, which most of the existing DVB PC cards do already -- i.e. if you have a satellite dish and a DVB-S card in your PC, it is highly likely that you can already receive 1920x1080 interlaced HDTV broadcasting from Euro1080 in full resolution on your PC. Only question is really whether your PC's CPU and GPU have enough power to play the HDTV material :-)

[Herske]

I understood what you said, but for DVB-S/C/T, the resolution is clearly defined in the standard.

Please check out the "Implementation Guidelines for the use of Mpeg 2 sistems[....]" (available for free at ETSI, AFAIK), and check chapter 5.1.4; it enumerates five allowed resolutions.

To be honest, out of the ~1000 DVB channels I receive, none has a resolution that is not listed in the standard (including Euro 1080).

It's true, budget sat cards will decode whatever stream is being thrown on them, but that's because they use software (mpeg) decoders, which are more versatile than hardware ones.

/Herske.

[Itchy]

you can use dvx and pva-strumento to compress digital tv rips to xvid or divx avi's but like has been said before, only for use with copyright free sources :)

[morsa]

DVB standard is only used in Europe and may be some related country.
The rest of the world able to get plugged to HDTV broadcast has the ATSC standard.(Anybody remember there's a whole continent called America, in spite of its three flavors: North, Central and South or Sud?? )

[Itchy]

im pretty sure its two continents :P