[mythtv-users] HDTV Hardware Question

[Steven Adeff]

On 2/2/06, Tony Enriquez <t_enriquez at yahoo.com> wrote:
> the 6412 is their dual tuner box iirc, in which case
> you'll want to
> get the 6200 for MythTV use. Second, don't expect to
> get all the
> channels via firewire, 5C may be enabled preventing
> this. Before
> building anything, get a 6200 in your hands, connect
> it to your tv and
> use the service menu to see if 5C is enabled by your
> cable company.
> --------------------
> Steve,
>
> My cable company only offers the 6412.  According to
> the website they also use HDCP (High-bandwidth digital
> content protection).  Is this the same as 5C?

no, HDCP is for DVI connection, 5C is similar in concept but for
firewire. Using the 6412 should be fine, just don't set up any
recordings, etc. The way the firewire connection works is that it
mimics the output to the tv except it just sends the mpeg stream. This
means Myth needs to be able to control the 6412 so that when it tunes
channels, etc. the 6412 is sending out the channel to the tv and
firewire. I don't know how the 6412 normally behaves or if the dual
tuner nature will screw anything up.


> If all looks good from here, then yes, you will be
> able to use the
> cable box as a tuner and connect as many as you want
> via firewire. No
> internal tuner required.
>
> Your only issue will be playback of HDTV, though you
> can manage if you
> have an nVidia card and enable XvMC for playback. If
> you want to go
> the route of using just your CPU you will need
> something closer to
> 3Ghz, as always the faster the better. You may even be
> able to use the
> same motherboard and just place a faster CPU in it.
> Firewire captures
> don't stress the CPU as much as the harddrives. A
> single drive can
> handle about 2 HD streams at a time, using a RAID 5
> array you can
> increase this. It is also suggested to use a seperate
> drive for your
> recordings. 512MB of RAM should be fine, my be/fe box
> is running with
> 512MB.
>
> ---------------
>
> My video card is a NVIDIA 5200 so I will give that a
> try when I get the set top box.  FYI, I used a HD-3000
> card and received one PBS and one preview channel.
> The preview channel was about 3"x1" in size.  I'm
> guessing the other 4 signals were encrypted.  Thanks
> for the response!

The 5200 is considered the best card to use for MythTV. You should be
able to receive all the over the air HD channels through your cable
line with the HD-3000, MythTV can't properly scan QAM right now, so
you'll have to check manually, but it can tune the channels, you just
have to edit the db manually to enter the channel information.


--
Steve