[mythtv-users] Newbie Questions

[Tom Lichti]

Brett Kosinski wrote:
> 
>     1.) Digital vs. Analog Cable
> 
>     I am in Canada with Shaw as my cable provider.  There is not broadcast
>     digital service and I would not expect it anytime soon given our
>     draconian
>     government controlled TV system.  I would like to make the jump to
>     digital
>     cable but I want to make sure I can still use my PVR.  If I
>     subscribe to
>     the service does the PRV tuner basically replace my providers tuner box?
>     i.e. it can tune into the digital channels?
> 
> 
> No.  You'll feed the output of your digital cable box into your MythTV 
> PVR, and control it via an IR blaster-type device (so Myth can perform 
> channel changes).  This is because the digital cable feeds are 
> encrypted, so there's no way to feed them directly into the Myth box.  
> This also, incidentally, makes HDTV out of the question.
> 

Depends on your provider, actually. I am on Rogers in Brampton, and I 
can get about 50 unencrypted channels via QAM off my cable line, using 
an HDHomeRun. The channels are mostly the time shifted Canadian stations 
(CBC, Global, CTV, etc) that are from east, central, mountain and west 
time zones. The quality on these channels is way better via QAM than the 
same show from an analog recording through a PVR-x50 card (smaller in 
size too). I can also get 8 or so HD channels OTA with the HDHR (CBC, 
CITY, FOX, NBC, PBS, CBS and soon ABC), so I'm quite happy with it all. 
I still have 3 analog cards as well, so I can get the stuff I can't get 
via QAM or OTA.

Tom