[mythtv-users] Comcast Set-Top Box and OSD

[Preston Crow]

On Wed, 2008-03-26 at 16:43 -0400, Jeff Clark wrote:
> Comcast in Boston makes you use their box since all the channels are
> digital, which means that I definitely have to use a set-top box to
> control my channels (right?).

You must use the set-top box to control the channel for digital cable
recordings, except for unencrypted QAM channels that you record with a
DVB card (that's usually just the broadcast channels).  My experience in
the Boston area is that channels under 100 are available as analog
channels without the box.  They seem to also be broadcast in digital, so
in some cases you get a better picture if you record through the cable
box.

> I'm curious though: when I hook my Mythbox up to my set-top box and
> change the channel to start a recording or whatever, won't the OSD
> from the Motorola box be recorded onto the Mythbox recording?  Is
> there any way around this?

Yup, recordings from digital cable have the OSD from the set-top box on
them.  For my box, I was able to change the time that the OSD stayed up,
and Myth takes a second or two to start up the recording, so I don't see
it.  Since there's soft-padding of a minute on each side of my
recordings, though, it wouldn't matter anyway most of the time.