[mythtv-users] Multiple Tuners/Digital Cable (Newbie)

Jarod C. Wilson jcw at wilsonet.com
Sun Oct 12 10:07:02 EDT 2003


On Sunday, Oct 12, 2003, at 07:27 US/Pacific, Mike Green wrote:

> On Saturday 11 October 2003 11:36 pm, Jarod C. Wilson wrote:
>
>> when tuning in the lower channels on both cards. Mucking with
>> controlling the cable box (which is sometimes slow, and you get the
>> annoying OSD crap in your recordings on occasion) only comes into play
>> if you want to record or watch something through MythTV that is on a
>> higher channel.
>
> Am I correct in my understanding that I can only a) watch the higher 
> channel
> that is currently recording, and b) surfing the higher channels would
> prevent me from recording a higher channel?  In other words, since the
> higher channels have to "tune" via the cable converter, I cannot 
> record and
> watch them at the same time (unless I watch it as it is recording)?

You are absolutely correct.

>>> Have a third card with an mpeg2 decoder to view output on the tv.
>>
>> Don't get a 3rd card. Just substitute a PVR-350 for one of the 
>> PVR-250s
>> to accomplish this.
>
> Ouch.  I just went from approximately $300.00 to $480 for video cards 
> :)

?!? A PVR-250 is max $150 each, so I understand your $300 number. A 
PVR-350 is $200 max, so if you went the route I'm suggesting, you'd be 
at $350 max, not $480. Perhaps you though I was suggesting two 250s and 
a 350, but what I was intending to suggest was a 350 *in place of* one 
of the 250s, so only two cards total.

> I
> wanted a decoder only card for viewing to save the expense of the a 
> card
> with encoder and decoder.

I'm fairly certain getting a decoder-only card along with a 250 will be 
more cost (or about the same) as just getting a 350 to handle both. 
Plus, you save a PCI slot.

> I am assuming there are decoder-only cards that
> are cheaper than buying an encoder and decoder.

That actually work with MythTV? Not that I'm aware of...

> What I am aiming for is to
> keep the cpu requirements down, which will allow me to use some old 
> retread
> boxes...  Then perhaps I could add another cheap frontend box upstairs 
> to
> watch only...

I think one 350 and one 250 is just the ticket for your primary 
machine. For a cheap view-only frontend, obviously the 350 isn't 
something you'd want to duplicate, so you might look at a VIA EPI M1000 
system, which has an on-board decoder that is supported by MythTV. 
Though "cheap" is a relative term... :)

--Jarod

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

Got a question? Read this first...
     http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
MythTV, Red Hat Linux 9 & ATrpms documentation:
     http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=rh9pvr250
MythTV Searchable Mailing List Archive
     http://www.gossamer-threads.com/archive/MythTV_C2/



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