Digital OTA decoder card

There is the MyHD120, the Fusion 3/Fusion 3 gold QAM and the ATI HD-Wonder. I believe there is one more but I am not positive. Most people seem to favor the MyHD or the Fusion 3 cards due to less bugs and more software support.
 
There is a USB HDTV tuner from Sasem.

MyHD MDP120 runs about $240 and doesnt do QAM (HDTV through cable and Sat).

The FusionHDTV3 QTR is the card for Fusion as the QAM Gold is a discontinued product i think and it does do QAM.

Apparently there are 2 different kinds of QAM, QAM 64 and Qam 256 and the Fusion does both and is around $150. ATI's HDTV Wonder doesnt do QAM either and runs $199.

MIT (the MDP-120 people) have the MDP-130 coming out soon that does do QAM and there is some new card coming out for Fusion but dont know what it is yet. The MDP-120 has 2 RF inputs but not sure why as I have been told it cant do picture in picture so my guess is so that you can have both the HDTV antenna and cable hooked up at the same time without having to switch between them.

If I felt like waiting I would probably do the FusionHDTV3 QTR as its only $150 and does what the others do much cheaper and should you choose to get HDTV through cable or satellite you wouldnt have to update your card.

Or if your the gotta have when I pay for it type like me then the ATI is the only option as no retail store anywhere carries anything but the ATI HDTV Wonder.
 
Im new to HDTV as I just bought the ATI HDTV Wonder about 3 hours ago. It works great when the networks broadcast true HD content which is mostly during primetime. Other times of the day they just upscale regular analog signals to HD resolutions.

I used to know whta broadcast flags are but have forgotten.
 
Broadcast flags are something studios have come up with to work as a form on copy protection. What they are supposed to do is based on the flag either not allow the program to recorded, only allow the program to be recorded and viewed once or to be recorded and viewed many times. Thats a gross simplification of the technology behind broadcast flags but gets the point across. To my knowledge no OTA cards read the broadcast flags at this point which is a good thing.
 
For the thread starter here is a good place to get an antenna for a reasonable price.

http://www.starkelectronic.com/

I have used them before with great results. The channel master 4221 would probably work good for you on the old dish mount if you get almost all the channels in-doors now.
 
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