[mythtv-users] A few questions (Directv, lirc priority)

[Davey McWatters]

Reading some information about using directv has me a little confused as 
to how it works. The thing that has me confused is if you have several 
directv stb's. Now if you have lets say 4 for example, and you want to 
use a serial connection to the box to change the channel and such, is 
there a way to do this that I am not seeing? Or can you only control 1 
box via serial since most computers only have 1 serial port. So my 
question is, how can you control more than 1 directv box individually 
from a single backend?

Relating to the above question, what if you have multiple frontends 
controlling a backend with multiple tuners without any STBs, just 
standard analog cable. Do most people just make an IR receiver for their 
front ends or am I missing something?

Finally, my next question involves lirc client application priority. 
What determines which application has priority over the remote control 
button presses? For example, if I have irexec, xine, and mythfrontend 
all running, is it simply the application with focus that has priority?