HDTV tuner cards 101- Starting with the Janus Chip

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In the past year we have seen mass market HDTV tuner cards introduced for the PC and Mac. While the reference designs have been well documented for these boards, little consumer information has been provided to help potential buyers understand the various card's capabilities and differences.

Almost all of the current offerings use a 1998 reference design built around the TeraLogic Janus DTVPC Decoder Chip. While the various components have evolved since then, the HDTV tuners we see on the market today are basically described by this 1998 white paper from TeraLogic.
http://www.broadcastpapers.com/data/januswhtppr.pdf
more: http://www.broadcastpapers.com/data/janus2.htm

To help discussion of PC HDTV tuner cards, I think we should consider this paper basic reading. I hope others add additionl links for white papers and feature comparisons for this class of tuner cards.

The following link lists most of the currently available DTV tuner cards in the USA market and discusses the implentation of the broadcast flag which is to go into effect mid year.
http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/

I'll repeat their list of tuner links here.

PC
access DTV
http://www.accessdtv.com/accessdtv/index.htm
ATI
http://www.ati.com/products/hdtvwonder/index.html
Dvico: Fusion HDTV
http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/Eng/
Hauppauge: WinTV-D, WinTV-HD
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/products.htm#digital
RAM: MyHD, Fusion HDTV3
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/hdtv-cards.html
Digital Connection: MyHD
http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/mdp120.asp

Mac
Elgato eyeTV 500
http://elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetv500&PHPSESSID=667b9dd0780f2d2035a17dadbd0e33c8

Linux
pcHDTV
http://www.pchdtv.com/
http://www.pchdtv.com/hd_3000.html
MythTV
http://www.mythtv.org/
KnoppMyth
http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html
Technisat Air2PC ATSC-PCI HDTV
http://www.cyberestore.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=103[/b]

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