[mythtv-users] Myth and DTV Converter Box

[Darrin]

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 12:42 AM, Brad DerManouelian
<myth at dermanouelian.com>wrote:

> On Oct 7, 2008, at 9:19 PM, Jesse Michelsen wrote:
>
> > So I am a real cheap guy and don't really want to pay for cable or
> > satellite TV when there are enough perfectly good TV shows coming over
> > the waves free. I got my free coupons for DTV converter boxes from the
> > government so I can keep watching free TV until my wife finally says
> > "I
> > WANT REAL CHANNELS"
> > Well my question here is this. Has anyone had success running mythtv
> > with DTV + antenna as the input? I am having trouble here, heres how
> > its
> > set up.
> > The DTV box:
> > has antenna in (coax)
> > coax out
> > AV out
> >
> > normally the antenna would come in, and coax or av would go out to a
> > TV
> > tuned to channel 3 or 4, whatever the dtv box was set to. The channels
> > then have to be changed via the dtv remote, the TV staying on ch3/4
> >
> > tvtime is the same way, tune to ch3/4 and dtv+antenna come in fine and
> > channels are changed on the dtv
> >
> > with mythtv I figure it would work the same way but then I wouldn't
> > really be able to record anything in the normal fashion. I could set
> > myth to record channel 3 and change the channel on the dtv to the
> > show I
> > wanted to record but that isn't quite the setup one would want and
> > even
> > that I am having trouble with. This is my first PC-TV setup ever and
> > its
> > been quite a painful journey but I think it will be worth it in the
> > end.
> > Until then, does anyone have any ideas? I have searched all over the
> > net
> > but its kinda weird and unique setup I think and I haven't found any
> > info.
> > sorry so lengthy
>
> You have two choices for (strictly) over the air programming. The
> first one is exactly like you thought it would work:
> 1. Use your converter box and current analog capture device. Tell myth
> to tune the analog capture card to channel 3 and tell mythtv to change
> the channel on the DTV box. This will require an IR blaster to send
> the correct commands to the DTV box. This is assuming you have a DTV
> box with known remote control that lirc can control.
>
> 2. Replace your analog capture card with a digital one and let mythtv
> tune the card to the correct channel. I only have expensive digital
> capture cards ($129 for my pcHDTV-5500 and $170 for an HDHomeRun with
> 2 tuners), so I don't know how well the cheaper ones work but I know
> there are cheaper ones.
>
> -Brad
>

For the OP: If you have a pci slot, you might be able to get a Dvico Fusion
HDTV5 RT Gold for cheap.  They were recently discontinued and retailers that
have them left on their shelves are dumping them.  Might be harder to find
now - I got mine a few weeks ago from snapstream.com.

I dumped cable just before starting this project, so as far as I could see,
not having cable for one month paid for mine.

Otherwise, the card works great - I didn't even have to build drivers for
it.
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