[mythtv-users] What's the point of MythTV HD?

[David Shay]

On 12/3/07, Ken Mandelberg <km at mathcs.emory.edu> wrote:
>
> What's really missing here is a cable card HD tuner that MythTV could
> access. A cablecard hdhomerun would be optimal, and since CableLabs has
> blessed DTCP-IP it seems that one is possible. This would work a whole
> lot better than renting an expensive HD cablebox and manipulating it
> with a blaster to get a single channel of flakey firewire output.
>
> Even that would still only get the CCI=0 content, but thats a whole lot
> more HD than unencrypted QAM.
>
> Another alternative is buying an HD Tivo, which allows ethernet
> transfers of CCI=0 content with TTG. The box price is reasonable, but
> the monthly is expensive for treating it as a tuner. (I've also heard
> that there is a hardware prom hack that makes the Tivo hackable).


I won't speak of Tivo hacks but I also will say that it is definitely the
"third" option that I would pursue if I cared about those HD channels that
the cable company doesn't send me unencrpyted.  I just purchased two of them
for my Mom.  Fortunately, I got them both with deals where they were
"lifetime subscriptions" so there is no monthly fee, although the whole
setup wasn't exactly cheap either.  I think the lifetime deal was only for
existing customers, but you can do some transfers of old ones through e-bay
to get around that if you are interested.

We have a HD DVR from the cable company, but only because right now it is
effectively "free".  I was using it for a period of time before I HD-enabled
Myth and I can tell you it was the most god-awful experience ever.  Just a
nightmare, especially after coming from Myth.  When we wanted to wean Mom
off VCR's, my brother's first suggestion was a cable company DVR, and I said
no way, had to be Tivo.

Although it's not as good as Myth, IMHO, it is very slick and packaged and
about 50 times better than any cable company DVR, works with the cable cards
that they are required to provide you by law, so you will be able to get the
full complement of HD channels that your cable company offers.  You can do
multi-room viewing and interactions between two devices, just can't do
intelligent cross-scheduling.
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