[mythtv-users] Getting into HD

[Greg Woods]

On Fri, 2009-04-24 at 13:30 -0400, James Pifer wrote:
> My understanding is you have to use the cable
> company's digital set top box to get the extra channels.

One of the things that makes this hard is that the answer to this is "it
depends". Some cable companies encrypt virtually everything except the
over-the-air (OTA) networks. Others make lots of channels available in
the clear. The only way to know what your cable company is making
available without an STB is to connect a digital tuner to your cable and
see. A new HD TV will almost surely have a digital tuner and scanner
that you can use for this. If your TV can tune it without a cable card,
then you can get it into Myth without an STB.

If it turns out that the channels you want are available in the clear,
then an HDHomerun or DVB tuner card would work. 

If it turns out that some of the channels you really want do require the
STB, then your only choices are firewire or a Hauppage HD-PVR (assuming
some of the channels you want are HD). Both of these are problematic.
Some people have reported great success using firewire, others (like me)
have never succeeded in making that work reliably. The HD-PVR currently
works only with the unstable trunk code. I have yet to get mine working
reliably but I'm getting close. 

Check the list archives at

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users

for many discussions about firewire, DVB, HDHomerun, the HD-PVR, and
running trunk.

--Greg