[mythtv-users] Connecting to external cable box

[Gavin Haslett]

> Yeah, I'm option 2 (using the serial wire and I have the cable connected via 
> coax). Can you explain to me how I would do this. What do I set Video device 
> and default input to?


Well, firstly the serial cable won't help you capture anything, you need
to hook up the (ideally) component out on the cable box to the
appropriate inputs on a capture card such as a PVR. This is the exact
combination I have (a PVR250) and it works great.

The serial cable will allow you to control channels from your Myth Box.
Check the FAQ... there's good info about hooking up to a cable box, and
if you search around you might even be able to find a pre-built script
that you can use to change channels. Normally, it's just sending raw
ASCII codes to the serial ports to set the channel, but sometimes it can
be more complex. It depends a lot on which cable box you have.

Anyway, once that's configured you need to tell Myth (in mythtvsetup) to
use the channel-change script to control the tuning, not the internal
mechanisms. Once done, apart from occasionally tuning your script if you
find a problem you can pretty much forget about it. At least until you
upgrade your Myth TV system with a clean upgrade and forget to re-link
in the script, then spend two days trying to figure out why it won't
change channels any more. Don't ask how I know about this :)

Gavin