[mythtv-users] Problems Using VCR as Cable Tuner

[Brian Wood]

Greg Hermsen wrote:
> I have a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 card and installed beta drivers as
> discussed in other postings.  The ATSC half of the card tunes
> over-the-air channels nicely.  I found through a call to Hauppauge tech
> support that they have a problem with their cards tuning Comcast cable. 
> I was told their cards don't recognize the frequency Comcast is using
> and they are working on fixing it.
> 
> In the meantime, I'm trying to use my VCR as a cable tuner.  For various
> reasons I want to use coax-only connections, not composite.  I have
> cable coax from the wall the the VCR input and coax from the VCR output
> the the HVR-1600 input.  I created dummy channels 3 and 4 in MythTV for
> the cable half of the card.  I know the VCR can tune channels without a
> problem.  When I view channel 3 and 4 through MythTV, all I get is black
> and white static.
> 
> I assume I missed one or two things in the backend configuration for
> this setup.  Does anybody have something similar working?  I would
> appreciate any suggestions.

The RF output of VCRs is usually channels 2 or 3 (sometimes 3 or 4) on
standard assignments (not HRC ir IRC).

I'm not sure, but if you tell Myth to input on a specific channel it
might assume it needs to tune an STB, thus you might have to have a
channel changing script. If you do not have or need such a script
putting /bin/true into the setup as a change script might solve your
problem.

beww