[mythtv-users] Analog and Digital Cable Confusion (HDHR, etc)

[Tom Greer]

Matt Jordan wrote:
> To date I have only really dealt with analog cable so he digital/HDTV
> realm is very much an unknown.
>
> I am building a new Myth setup and was hoping to jump into high def
> and use HDHR as the primary 'tuner'. My thought was that I could get
> the digital channels I pay for but only the HDTV ones would be
> encrypted and if I were unable to record in HDTV I could just record
> in SD (but still digital). I realize that this may not be the case
> because even the SD may be encrypted (correct?).
>
> Since analog will be going away I want to avoid using an analog tuner
> in this system. Is it possible to use an HDHR as the sole input and
> still get all channels I pay for?

Matt,

I have five tuners in my MythTV system.  An HDHomerun (2 tuners) and
three DCT-6xxx boxes attached via firewire.

Via Firewire, I get every analog and digital channel except premium
channels (like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etc).

The HDHomerun gives me a much smaller selection of channels.  I get
about 10 HD channels (most of those would be available OTA).  All of
the digital tier channels are encrypted.  And many of the analog
channels are either not transmitted via QAM or encrypted.

The firewire boxes used to be very unreliable.  But recent changes to
the backend tuner application have solved most of the problems.

I bought my HDHomerun in the hopes that I could move away from
firewire; but the minimal set of available channels from my cable
provider (Cox) killed this option.

YMMV; but I would strongly recommend firewire at this point.

Tom