[mythtv-users] HD3000 and High-Def

[Dewey Smolka]

I don't have an HD card, and don't even have cable, so please take
whatever I say with a huge grain of salt.

As I understand it, HD requires a digital signal, which means a
digital cable box. But just because you have a digital box doesn't
necessarily mean HD. My folks upgraded to digital cable (Comcast) not
too long ago, but I haven't had a chance yet to really look at the
box. However, I don't recall seeing a digital output from the box, or
any output capable of HD. IIRC, it's got coax, S-vid, RCA audio, and a
serial port. It may have component outs (capable of HD) but I don't
remember. It may also have a DVI port for HD displays, but I don't
know of any card capable of capturing a DVI signal.

With an HD*000 card, you should be able to capture OTA HD channels
with an HD-compatible antenna. Going through a cable box, however, it
is irrelevant how well the box can decode HD if it's only putting out
an SD signal.

Supposedly cable companies are required to provide a box with firewire
or other data dumping for HD cannels (which allows you to capture the
raw HD stream without the need for an encoder card), but how well this
works in practice is anyone's guess. Also, the cable companies don't
send all the HD channels through the firewire port. I've heard here
that the OTA channels are generally fine, but cable-only HD is not
available. Also HD files are absolutely enourmous.

The other thing is that to use the cable decoder, you need some way to
control it from MythTV, which means using the serial port (at least
that's what I think it's for), or an IR blaster. With analog cable
channels, you just plug the line straight into your card and off you
go. With the digital channels (SD or HD), you need the decoder box,
meaning more things to set up and more possible points of failure.

There's plenty of discussion here on the ins and outs of getting HD
into Myth, but for me, I'd rather wait until it's a bit easier,
there's more channels available, and neccessary equipment (not just
the card, but CPU, HDDs, display, etc) comes way, way down in price.