[mythtv-users] SA3250HD Firewire: test-mpeg2 good, mythtv bad

[John P Poet]

On 7/21/06, John P Poet <jppoet at gmail.com> wrote:
> Using test-mpeg2 I can capture video from my SA3250HD cable box.  It
> has an occasional minor glitch in the form of some pixelization, but
> generally looks pretty good.
>
> Using MythTV I can capture video from my SA3250HD cable box.  It is
> *HEAVILY* pixelated, and will barely play.  It is so bad that if
> mythcommflag tries to run on it, it will crash the whole mythbackend
> process.

<snip>

I use a few HD3000 cards to capture ATSC OTA.  I decided to
reconfigure one to use QAM via my cable feed.  Result was heavily
pixelated, much like the firewire capture.

I put the HD3000 into my frontend (only) machine, configured it for
QAM capture and started up mythbackend on it.  Result was a nice clean
picture.

I moved the SA3250HD cable box to my frontend machine and took the
HD3000 out.  Result was a nice clean picture.

The Comcast coax going into my office, where my backend machine is
located, is new.  Comcast put it in to fix a problem with my internet
connection going down frequently.  The Comcast coax going into my
living room, where my frontend machine is located, is very old, and is
a much longer run than the new one to my office.

So, it would appear that what is good for my internet connection, is
bad for high frequency QAM channels.

This does not explain why test-mpeg2 produced a (relatively) clean
picture compared to Myth, but at least I have a solution...

In a way it is probably a better solution anyway, since I still have
to FIGHT to get the firewire working.  With the firewire on a "slave"
backend, I am less likely to screw up a non-firewire recording during
a battle.

John