[mythtv-users] New to list, replacing Sky+, DVD, etc

Matt Bruce lists at jumile.me.uk
Sun Jul 29 21:56:03 UTC 2007


Hi,

> Welcome :)

Thanks ;)

> As a started for 10 - are you wedded to satellite or do you have
> reasonable digital terrestrial reception?

My house is on the side of a valley wall, so is in a terrestrial
shadow. I could get a high-gain antenna installed, but it would be a
good 10ft above my rooftop. So I'm pretty much stuck with satellite.
Could be worse.

Ironically, I'm not far from a BBC radio transmitter, so can get any
radio station I like - providing it's a BBC station. All other
stations get splattered - fortunately DAB radio works fine. I don't
glow in the dark... honest. ;)

> Satellite is easy enough to set up (I have a mixture of both on my
> system) but satelllite comes with certain limitations at the moment.
>  - you still can't get channel 4 and five unencrypted via satellite
> (and e4 I think).

As I own the Sky gear I have and still have the Sky satellite card, my
understanding is that Ch4&5 are fine with that card (I'll essentially
be a "Freesat from Sky" user as per http://www.freesatfromsky.com/
with ~200 video channels and ~95 radio channels). So if I build a PVR
that can take the card (a CI slot?), will that not allow Ch4&5
decryption?

Until they change the encryption key every few years, and then it
should just  be a matter of paying £20 for a new card. That's what Sky
told me when I enquired a few months ago.

>  - the (non-encrypted) satellite epg is only now and next - not 8 days.

That's a pain. I'm a registered DigiGuide.com user - I don't supposed
there's any way of integrating that into a PVR's EPG? Or am I right in
thinking you can get third-party EPG data via the Internet?

From what research I've done to date, it looks like Hauppage are
popular with MythTV users? What's a good DVB-S hardware decoder that
can do the "record 2 channels, record 1 and watch 1" Sky+-type stuff?
(Is that called dual-LNB?) The NOVA-S seems to have only a single TNC
connector, so I don't suppose that would do what I'm after? Are the
HVR-3000 or HVR-4000 the closest multi-signal satellite alternatives -
do they have any issues with MythTV?

Thanks,
Matt


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list