[mythtv-users] DBOX2

Justin Hornsby justin.hornsby at gmail.com
Tue Jan 17 13:58:59 UTC 2006


On 17/01/06, Mike Richardson <doctor at mcc.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> I've managed to find a bit of info about mythtv and the dbox2 but I was
> just
> wondering if anyone has a summary of how the dbox integrates with mythtv
> and
> general funcationality comparisions with a PC running mythfrontend and an
> MVP box?
>
> I'm considering getting one but would like to know a bit more first.
>
> My main desire is to be able to record Sky One (and some other cable
> channels) to a central mythtv server (already set up and working) and be
> able to watch the recording back in multiple rooms (got an MVP box in the
> bedroom already).
>
> I'm not keen on messing around with our existing cable boxes, encoding
> analogue signals and IR channel changers - I'd like to leave those boxes
> alone and have the mythtv stuff as a separate entity.
>
> Ideally would like to be able to use the full mythfrontend software
> functionality for scheduling and recording of programs.
>
> Not too fussed about watching live TV through these devices - mostly just
> need sources for recording of programs.
>
> Mike
> --
>

The basic idea is this:
DBOX2 operates on your network as a 'source' for video to record.   There's
code in SVN to talk to the box, get a list of channels & populate the
programme guide (but you have to add the channels yourself).  At recording
time, mythtv takes an MPEG2-TS stream from the DBOX2's network connection
via a TCP stream. An alternative method using UDP is being developed, so I
hear...

Anyway - in that configuration not many people have had success or a great
deal of reliability, but this is probably caused by the http daemon on the
dbox being overwhelmed (or that fact it only has 10-base ethernet).

A very workable solution is to use the dbox as-is, but rather than enabled
it as a video source for mythtv directly, connect a PVR tuner card to its
audio & video outputs.  You don't need an IR blaster to change channels on
the box because the dbox has a web interface... all you need is a script
(see the ML archive from a few days ago for my scripts to do this very job).

Either way, your mileage may vary, and getting the damned thing to work in
the first place can be tricky -thankfully there are lots of forums for help
on that.

Some people are under the misapprehension the dbox can be 'converted' into a
frontend for mythtv.  This might be possible, but I'm not aware of anybody
having tried it.  The dbox software _can_ play back MPEG2 files from network
shares though, so maybe it wouldn't be too much work to bolt a better GUI
around it & a bit of mysql.

I hope this answers some questions for you.

Regards....
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