Another HDTV card from DVIco.co.kr. The retail price will be under 200,000 South Korean Won. (1 USD = 1,200 SKW.)

Press Release

Fusion HDTV

Hardware requirements:

A good monitor to display 1920x1080 resolution.
Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz.

It will be available from week 4 or week 5 and I will be hopefully one of the first to buy one. Hardware HDTV cards usually cost 50% more. LG announced an HDTV recorder which stores HD video to hard disk last year, not yet commercialized of course. A two-hour 1920x1080 resolution HD video encoded with MPEG-2 requires 20-30GB of storage space which is why most HDTV companies are also developing Blu-ray and other post-DVD technologies that provide several times more areal data density. And I need to overclock my processors again.

From AV Korea.

And

http://www.avkorea.co.kr/data/board/753711.jpg (1632x1224)

Is HDTV in Korea yet available? Here in Europe I've never seen it before (well I've seen it, but not at ppl's home)....

It's awkward for me to realize (again and again) why HDTV is so rare in Europe when average South Koreans earn less than half of what average Europeans earn and the same consumer electronics products cost 20-50% or even 200-1000% more here than China, Japan, and the US. The first Sony Hi-Vision HDTV was displayed more than 10 years ago in Tokyo.

HDTV cards are popular here though hardware-based PCI cards usually cost 50% more than 1.8GHz Pentium 4 Northwood processors (but still cheaper than DVD writers and 29-inch SD analogue TV set.) I don't know how many households in South Korea can watch HDTV-broadcasted programs right now or how many people have a HDTV set at their home. The South Korean government has strongly supported HDTV, nation-wide home Internet (DSL and fiber), and other Hi-Tech projects for more than ten years.

Enough number of forum users in South Korea are already using both VDSL and HDTV so they can upload HDTV-captured music and news video on forums (not yet prohibited in any way as far as I know) to let us believe anything less than VDSL and HDTV are outdated by now (one forum I founded in January 1999 had 100GB server HDD space plus 100GB more for backup by mid-1999 thanks to the first South Korean broadband company Thrunet's support for communities.)

I have no serious interest in buying a US$10,000 HDTV yet (I'll probably buy one if I make US$50,000 a year) when I can have a P4 2GHz PC with a HDTV card, 4x DVD writer, 21-inch CRT monitor, 8Mbps ADSL, etc. for less than $1,000.

More information here or here at the DVICO site.

So far, DVICO, Sigmacom, Sasem (the No. 1 TV card manufacturer in South Korea, whose company name literally means Human and Computer), and Suma in South Korea have either released or plan for imminent release of software HDTV cards.

One should be bundled in a DVD writer package.

I am right now reading replies to this thread where Mr. Jaehong Lee who works at the South Korean Ministry most responsible for these technology development and distribution tells about his first experience with the software-based Fusion HDTV card. Just added my own 160th in the HDTV card thread.

Sasem has recently released a software HDTV card for less than $130.

That is, I will soon be able to have a PCI HDTV card inside every PC I run for approximately $100 per each.

The quality cannot match the hardware cards and consumer electronics HDTV sets but it's still better and much cheaper than DVD.

HDTV Card: $100 (for a used one or at a discounted price)

DVD Title: $20 (per disc)

The JVC HDTV camcorder was also officially released this month in Japan. Too expensive for now.

I received a DVICO Fusion HDTV card a few days ago. I paid nearly 130,000 Korean Won or a little over US$100. I'll buy more (for under US$80 per unit) if I'm satisfied with the quality.

Can HTDV be broadcasted over ordinary satelite or only cable?
As many europeans I have never ever encountered a HDTV other than "on paper", the main reasons being the units are extremely expensive, and nobody broadcasts HDTV programmes (which makes the use of HDTV somewhat limited ).
However I have heard a German based TV station will start HDTV broadcasts late this year so maybe things will speed up.

Do you use NTSC for the ordinary analouge net in South Korea? If so then I understand why you were eager to get into HDTV

I think both.

Yes, NTSC.

My Fusion HDTV card.

I tried. The software seems instable just as all TV card programs have been to me in the past. Not yet impressed.

Now a used Fusion HDTV II card costs just US$60. There's even a USB 2.0 HDTV card for US$200. Everyone seems to have one.

Excellent!

Would this allow me to use my PC as an HDTC reciever?

IF so then I could output the HDTV singal to my 46" HDTV set.

A HDTV set top box still costs $400US from my cable company so this looks like an attractive alternative...

Sure. If you have graphics and CPU that use the latest technologies and are very powerful, even a softare card can do for most purposes. But some people still think hardware cards are better for serious HDTV. Hardware HDTV cards typically cost twice as much.

HDTV set-top box for US$400 sounds cheap to me. It's more like US$1,000 here though there are US$500 machine as well.

I've been reading alot of infomation here for the last couple of years.and today I,ve joined

I thank you guys for this info..I would love to put a HD card in my puter..still look for a good deal..but this info is a start..

thanks

Well I've got an AthlonXP 2700, 512RAM and a GF4 Ti4200 (128MG).

I'm thinking that would be fine...?

Partial explanation why HDTV doesn't develop as fast in Europe as in Asia could be different priorities and fundings by their respective governments.

from http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/1642.cfm

"The post-1998 South Korean economic recovery was largely dependent on massive liquidity, low interest rates, and an explosion in the use of consumer credit, leaving entrenched institutional weaknesses hidden. According to recent data from the Korea Development Institute, 20 percent of South Koreans now live below or near the poverty line, twice as many as did six years ago."

Not that this doesn't exist in Europe, but I doubt there are fundings available for boosting HDTV over here.

Yes this should be find..So are ya looking to set up a HD system?

- In Europe there is a new channel Euro1080, on Astra , i have See the channel in a SkyStar 2 50€ DVB the resolution of the channel is 1920x1080, i have use a ProgDVB software, and an external FilterGraph for a good frame rate.

www.euro1080.tv

Sorry for my Bad English.

I've only seen your post now by accident.

There at least a few important reasons why South Korea is rather strong in HDTV when South Korea is poorer than the poorest countries in Europe, excluding those that were under heavy USSR influence.

1. Government policies.

2. Jaebol monopoly.

3. Export-oriented economy.

4. Entropy resulted from high-speed growth.

I got a hardware-based HDTV PCI card developed in 2001 or 2002 a few months ago. I tried it on this PC but the driver and program didn't work.

DViCO not only released sucesssors to Fusion I and Fusion II but also a great DivX player based on external HDD. I haven't looked into it carefully but they advertise it can play DivX, Xvid, AVI, MPG, DAT, VOB, MP3, WMA, OGG, and JPEG and the outputs are S-Video, Composite, HD Component (progressive supported, 480p, 1280x720p, 1920x1080i), and digital 5.1ch. and analog 2ch., etc. Either USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394a.

@ Airhead
You can forget about HDTV for a long while here in Sweden, a move to HDTV would mean new boxes to all DVB customers. And as for now DVB-T seriously lack bandwidth to carry HDTV streams.
//Danne