[mythtv-users] More DirecTV/MythTV clarification

Brad DerManouelian myth at dermanouelian.com
Wed Jan 10 18:27:55 UTC 2007


On Jan 10, 2007, at 10:11 AM, notimeinco wrote:

> I apologize for not responding in the thread - I was in digest mode  
> (now out) so I'll just start a new one.
>
> My limited understanding of 169time is that the AVX1 is a bootable  
> OS provided on CD.  You can purchase their box (PC) or provide your  
> own.  You connect your firewire-enhanced STB to it and the AVX1  
> emulates a D-VHS recorder.  From there, you can tap the HD content  
> with MythTV, etc.  R5000HD is rumored to be more robust and seems  
> to also use a D-VHS emulation (under WinXP). I also found some  
> discussion of D-VHS/1394 emulation under Linux but it was not  
> recent.  The idea was to eliminate the WinXP box and go directly to  
> MythTV.
>
> My question about cabling out of a DirecTV STB was specific to HD.   
> If I assume that HD is only available on an HDMI port, what is the  
> obstacle to capture of that content?  Is it encryption?  If HD is  
> available on component and/or s-video, is there degradation and how  
> much?
The obstacle is that there are no consumer-grade cards that can  
capture from an HDMI port. You're looking at a pro card for many  
thousands of dollars if you want to do it. The HD signal is  
downsampled when output on S-Video so you will be only getting a  
standard def signal. Of course, it will be a REALLY nice SD signal,  
but SD none-the-less.
> Sorry if I'm being dense and these are really basic questions.
>
> Thinking it through, a more basic question is "Besides OTA, which  
> currently has fewer hoops to jump through for recording HD content,  
> cable-HD or satellite-HD?"
Cable is definitely easier with the right box. Firewire from the STB  
to Myth and you're done with the hardware part. However, you will run  
into limitations with encrypted channels that you don't have to worry  
about with satellite. Unfortunately, there is no single good solution  
that works for everyone. My cable system sucks, so I went with  
satellite and only OTA HD. If they had a better line-up and weren't  
evil, I would switch to get HD content via a cable STB.
>
> Paul
>
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