[mythtv-users] Firewire DCT recording -> Myth?

Steven Adeff adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com
Sat Jun 30 20:00:13 UTC 2007


On 6/30/07, Ken Mandelberg <km at mathcs.emory.edu> wrote:
> Tom Greer" <trgreer at gmail.com> writes;
>
> ====
> I have a system with three DCT6xxx boxes including a DCT-6416 and I
> have an HDHomeRun as well.  So my setup is similar to yours.
>
> The only reason I have the 6416 is as a backup (I had to wean my wife
> off of it).  At this point, I really no longer need it.  I should
> exchange it for a non-DVR box and save some money...
>
> I still don't understand why you don't let Myth control the DCT box
> all the time.  I am struggling to see the value in what you are trying
> to do.
>
> If you could help us understand, perhaps we could assist.
> ====
>
> Tom
>
> I have a variety of reasons, maybe not all good.
>
> First, since $18/month for a DVR is the only way to get a firewire box
> out of Comcast, I feel cheated ignoring its second tuner and recording
> hardware. It's just a lot of money to use it as a dumb tuner.

I'm very surprised by this, they don't offer a non-DVR HD box? What
area do you live in?

> There are also reliability issues. Even with firewire-tester the
> transfers are not completely reliable. Most of the times it works, but
> not always. If I let the DVR record the program, I have the option of
> doing the transfer until it works, or watching it from the DVR.

not completely reliable? in that you get dropped data or it doesn't
record sometimes? another thread on the list has been discussing a
script someone wrote to address some of the issues with firewire
captures that may help.

> Compounding the reliability issue, Comcast silently switches strategies
> from time to time about what gets marked 5C=0, depending on firmware and
> headend changes. There was a period where two of the OTA networks were
> coming up at 5C=2. At the moment everything is 5C=0, but it could change
> on a dime.

this is true, and the rest of us have our fingers crossed.  apparently
there is a way to prevent firmware updates from going through to the
box, I don't know if this would "solve" the 5C issue for those of us
with 5C=0 now.

> There are also reasons why I sometimes like watching directly from the
> DVR. WCompared with my computer hardware, the DVR does a better jobs on
> sequences with a lot of horizontal motion. I like some aspects of the
> DVR interface, like the progress bar, and look forward to the Tivo
> firmware for its improvement. Myth is a big win for flexibility,
> location mobility and storage capacity.
>
> I can certainly hack around the difficulties I raised with doing manual
> "transfers". I just thought someone may have done it already.
>
> Ken

-- 
Steve
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