[mythtv-users] Digital Cable / DBS

Jeff Williams JeffW at rockstargames.com
Mon Sep 8 19:57:44 EDT 2003


You need to hook it up like a standard TiVo - which means an IR blaster of some sort to go from your cable box to the PC.  There's no PC tuner that can take your cable company's digital signal and decode it.  Good luck - I've tried to set my system up with an IR blaster and nothing good has come of it (I have the Actisys IR200L, which is supposed to work with MythTV).  It's amazing that TiVo can do it out of the box but I can't get my system to do it after a week straight of trying (TiVo is based on Linux).  You'd think someone in the Linux community could come up with something that would work as easily as TiVo does (ie. plug the thing in, pick your cable box model, and you're done).

You'll need LIRC if you don't have it already, and then you'll need to set it up.

There is some cursory information in the Myth how-to on setting this up; beyond that, just Google for help.

As for where to get the IR200L if you decide on that (and it's the one model specifically mentioned in the Myth how-to), I got mine from Snapstream's online store linked from snapstream.com.  Note that there's no guarantee that you'll actually get an IR200L from them anymore, but I got mine after they changed their web site to specifically say I *wouldn't*, and the sales guy I emailed beforehand told me they basically had to tell people that as Actisys was coming down on them for stealing sales (Snapstream's prices are signficantly lower than everywhere else, including Actysis' own site).

Depending on your model of cable/satellite box, you may also be able to do a direct serial connection, but this is really model-specific and too technical to set up for someone like me.  If you're lucky enough to have a model that's known to work, and you're technically inclined, it's possible, though.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert La Ferla [mailto:robertlaferla at comcast.net]
> Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 6:44 PM
> To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> Subject: [mythtv-users] Digital Cable / DBS
> 
> 
> Does MythTv support digital cable / dbs satellite?  ie.  is their a 
> hardware tuner that works with it?  Can it just grab the raw digital 
> data or does it have to digitize/encode the video?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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