On Wed, 3 May 2017 11:52:37 -0700 (PDT), "Ron D."
wrote:

So, rotators are really foreign to Samsung.

Yep. I fired up my Samsung P2570HD TV and got an unpleasant surprise:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001335
When I scanned for active channels, it didn't find any channels. I
tried it several times, on several antennas, and got the same results.
No channels. Since the HDMI, composite, VGA, and DVI inputs all work
normally, my guess(tm) is the tuner is blown.

Looking at the available scan settings, it gets even stranger. I can
add a channel manually, but there doesn't seem to be any way to remove
a channel. Of course, since I can't test it, I'm sure about this.
Offhand, I would say you're correct, that Samsung doesn't make it easy
to use a rotator or multiple antennas.

That tuner is just plain weird because I need the physical channel
re-scan for virtual channels and it only reports the center frequency.
In the ATSC specs there is a center frequency field and sometimes
it's wrong.

Is the virtual channel number correct? Does it even have a virtual
channel number?

The $1000 tuner can;t do Daylight Savings Time properly,

The US congress critters tweaked the beginning and end of DST in order
to somehow save energy in 2007. Many devices didn't clean up their
DST act for many years after that.

nor can it do the EPG properly. Incidentally, this
http://auroramultimedia.com/products/vtune-pro-4k/ is the high
end tuner. It has other quirks too.

If it does IPTV, it must surely do NTP (network time protocol) which
includes proper DST shifts. I don't think there's a single device
available that does EPG (electronic program guide) without bugs, added
monthly costs, or both. However, don't blame the guide vendor.
Stations often change their programming at the last moment for odd
reasons (sponsor pressure, current events, ongoing disaster coverage,
etc).

I think a big issue for them is cable cards fell out of favor or
don't exist anymore.

It didn't "fall out of favor". It was massacred by the cable
companies, who preferred to rake in the cash from equipment leases
than to allow the GUM (great unwashed masses) to own their own
equipment. Never mind that the FCC ordered the availability of user
owned cable equipment. Comcast also made it look like a frontal
attack on Tivo, who is the major beneficiary in CableCard based
installations. Incidentally, Comast raised the price of them allowing
a CableCard from about $2/month to $10 or $15/month (I couldn't find
the exact price) so as to be equal with the cost of leasing a set top
box. So much for affordable.

It's grand scheme of things is to put the output on an IPTV/RF
modulator so I can watch on my laptop. I just haven't got there yet.

RF Modulator? That's rather low quality video if fed from composite
video. What most users want is the ability to record HD programming
without DRM issues. A CableCard in a tuner can do that if digitized
video can be delivered via ethernet (thus avoiding the encrypted HDMI
problem). No, I won't tell you how to do it.

As another ASIDE (sorry), I want a way to take analog L/R and
upconvert to AC3 5.1 in a "Audio Only" TV mode over HDMI, so I
can put an AM/FM tuner on an ATSC channel.

Why bother? Most OTA radio stations also stream over the internet.
Just point your web browsers to the stations URL and you have
streaming AM/FM audio on the laptop. However, if you do find a
station that does NOT stream, just plug an RTL2832U plus R820T2 SDR
receiver dongle into a USB port, run one of a dozen receiver control
programs, and you have an AM/FM/ham/WX/scanner/whatever receiver.
https://learn.adafruit.com/getting-started-with-rtl-sdr-and-sdr-sharp/sdr-number-fm-radio

Sigh. Topic drift at it's best.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558