[mythtv-users] MythTV and HDTV?

[Peter Lee]

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004, Ed Benckert wrote:
> 
> I use Myth right now just for images, video, and music... my TV is fed from
> my Tivo upstairs. I'm expanding my home theatre and was thinking of getting
> a HDTV DirecTV tuner for the basement and setting up Myth to PVR for it...
> can Myth handle HDTV? I'm assuming I'd need some special capture card, which
> I have not seen anywhere... so my inital thoughts are "No"

There is indeed a pcHDTV card.  Check out http://www.pchdtv.com/.  A number
of people are working on Myth support for this, see for example
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/54285?search_string=pchdt
v;#54285.

Note that decoding HDTV seems to require a fast processor (on the order of
3GHz).

> Will a DirecTV HDTV tuner have both HDTV and non-hdtv outputs on it? I'm
> thinking I can run the HDTV directly to my projector, and the svideo to the
> myth box. Maybe? Anyone have a setup anything like this?

I don't know about the DirecTV HDTV tuner, but my Comcast-provided Motorola
HDTV cable box has both component outputs (for hdtv) and svideo output (for
normal TV).  For a while I was piping the svideo output to my mythtv box,
and the component video output directly to the component video input on my
hdtv.  Then, I would switch to svideo mode on the tv to watch mythtv, and to
component mode to watch HDTV.

Ultimately, I didn't like this setup.  While watching HDTV (eg, the Super
Bowl), the mythtv box would sometimes decide to switch channels to record
something, which is annoying.  So, I decided to go out any get a second
cable box, exclusively for mythtv, and then reserve the hdtv cable box for
hdtv.

At some point I'll invest in the pcHDTV card, but since this would involve
getting a faster computer, it will have to wait...

Peter