[mythtv-users] (no subject)

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Fri Feb 16 22:45:01 UTC 2007


On Feb 16, 2007, at 2:58 PM, <michaelachandler at cox.net>  
<michaelachandler at cox.net> wrote:

> After lots of looking here, I'm thinking of getting an Avermedia  
> A180 to work with Mythtv, using my Cox cable, for hi-def TV recording.
>
> Maybe I missed something, but I found some on ebay with this  
> disclaimer:
> "Note: Product for free-to-air HDTV broadcasts only, product DOES  
> NOT receive satellite or cable HDTV transmissions."
>
> What's this? I couldn't use it with cable, but it appears lots of  
> you are?
> Thanks.

There are basically three ways to get HD into a Myth system from a  
cable TV source:

By unencrypted QAM, if your cable operator is kind enough to transmit  
HD programming in unencrypted form, which is not too likely and even  
it it's happening you can't count on it continuing. Basically this  
will only be the stuff you could get off-air anyway, with some  
exceptions.

Get one of the cable STBs that output an MPEG stream via firewire.  
Again this only works for unencrypted programming and only with  
certain STBs and only if the cable operator has enabled the F/W port  
(or more likely neglected to disable it). Yes, I know they are  
supposed to enable this feature for the basic broadcast channels but  
try explaining that to the customer service rep.

Spend upwards of $50,000 on a Lucent or Tandberg HD encoder that will  
allow you to encode the component output of a STB into an MPEG stream.

Any other alternatives I'm all ears to hear about.

This will all of course change with time. There are some HDMI capture  
devices that look promising and are relatively "cheap" (ie: under  
$5000) and there are some HD camcorders that apparently have encoder  
chips/chipsets in them that can apparently encode 1080i for well  
under $1000.

But essentially it's the "Hollywood" types who insist on protecting  
their "premium content", and are making things difficult for  
everyone, including themselves if they could only figure that out.

It's not really a technical problem at this point, it's an economic  
and legal one.




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