[mythtv-users] Why does going to live TV take so long?

[Michael Starks]

Marco Nelissen wrote:
> Well that's the question then: does it really take 6 seconds for the
> tuner to tune to a channel? The time to change the channel on a DVR
> should be only a fraction of a second longer than the time it takes
> the tuner to tune to a new channel, but If PC-based tuners are that
> much slower than the tuners you find in TVs (or Tivos) then that would
> certainly explain why MythTV takes so long.
> I doubt that's the case though, since someone mentioned earlier that
> MythTV has a 3-second buffer of data. If that's the case, it would
> account for the bulk of channel change time.

It's entirely a function of software.  When I first got my PVR-350 a
couple of years ago, I put it in a Windows box.  The software I used
changed the channel as quickly as any normal TV.  But when you pressed
pause it would queue up a 3 second buffer and then pause.  I actually
prefer this since I may change channels frequently (as in channel
surfing) but only pause occasionally.  And I can deal with a 3 second
delay after pausing.