[mythtv-users] standard vs digital cable

Ray Olszewski ray at comarre.com
Mon Jul 14 10:19:54 EDT 2003


At 08:51 AM 7/14/2003 -0700, Joshua Santelli wrote:
>Currently, I have digital cable and was looking into
>an IR blaster solution to change my channels.
>However, I think I would rather switch to "standard"
>cable if that would eliminate my need to have a set
>top box (cable box) and, more importantly, the IR
>blaster.  (it's also cheaper)

Yes. The difficulties of controlling the current generation of cable (and 
satellite) boxes, with Myth or pretty much anything else, vex a lot of us. 
I'm sure better solutions are on the horizon, but for now, it is a 
struggle, even for those who succeed.

>Will the cheap TV tuner card I have (ATI Wonder VE)
>work with all of the cable channels including
>"premium" channels?  The cable company (Time Warner)
>mentioned that if I got the HBO package that I would
>need to have _their_ cable box, not just a "cable
>ready" TV.

Normal "cheap TV tuner" cards tune about 125 channels, and I believe the 
ATI Wonder VE is normal in this respect. That is, they tune the (sort of) 
standard range of analog frequencies historically used for broadcast TV and 
analog cable. They have no ability to tune ANY true digital-cable signals.

What that means for you, in the way of what channels you can and cannot 
get, is completely dependent on the practices of your cable provider in 
your area. We can't tell you what that is. My local provider, for example, 
recently "upgraded" its system, and as a result, all of what providers 
usually call "premium" channels, including PPV, now require digital 
service. From what you say T-W says about HBO, I'd infer that you are in a 
similar situation ... but I've also learned not to believe *anything* a 
cable company tells me if there is a way to double check it (I think 
Cable-TV customer service is where used-car salesmen move on to).

>Anything else I should be aware of when making this
>decision?

My experience is that the quality of true digital signals is noticably 
higher, both to the eye and to capture software, than analog signals. 
Others say the opposite though, so this too is probably provider-dependent.

You might see if T-W already gives you analog cable as an add-on to its 
digital service (my provider, Comcast, does). If it does, it means that you 
can connect additional TVs directly to the cable and tune the lower range 
of channels (2-125 or so) without the cable box. The easiest way to see if 
you have this is to try a connection, which will either work or not (but 
might require a bit of treaking, to find the right frequency set, if you do 
the test with a Myth setup).





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