[mythtv-users] Firewire options with DCT 6200

Jerry Rubinow jerrymr at gmail.com
Thu Mar 16 16:43:48 UTC 2006


On 3/16/06, Jason Yau <booyau313 at gmail.com> wrote:
> What I would like to do is receive the unencrypted HD channels over
> Firewire, and then have MythTV channel switch over Firewire, and
> receive over S-video for all other channels.  It seems like this may
> be what the guide is describing, but it isn't completely clear.  Is
> MythTV smart enough to handle this automatically without any
> acrobatics by the end-user?

Well, kind of.  You can easily set up an s-video input to use the
external firewire channel change program to set the channel.  However,
in this setup both the firewire and the s-video are using the same
tuner in the cable box.  Myth does not know this, so if you try to use
the s-video input while the firewire input is doing something, Myth
will change the channel out from under the firewire, and vice versa.

I started talking to some of the devs about a month ago about trying
to add functionality to deal with this, but then life got a little
busy (4-month old baby) and I had to put that on hold for a bit.  I
still intend to get back to it at some point.

But anyway, if you're careful, you can get away with having firewire +
s-video.  That's the setup I have.  I have non-overlapping channel
guides assigned to each - the S-Video only can access channels the
firewire doesn't get in the clear.  And I'm careful about recording
and viewing.  So far, it's workable.

> Also, if this is the way it works, then is the (expensive) pcHDTV card
> necessary at all?  Isn't all of the HD signal coming over Firewire?

I suppose a 3000 using QAM could get you channels straight from the
coax without using the cable box tuner, that would be one advantage. 
But if you're getting all the OTA channels you want from the firewire,
you don't need the pcHDTV for antenna signals.

-Jerry


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