[mythtv-users] Partial and No Locks

Brad DerManouelian myth at dermanouelian.com
Thu Jan 1 21:26:54 UTC 2009


On Jan 1, 2009, at 1:07 PM, jr wrote:

> Sigh, of course. So what does checking "Unencrypted channels only"  
> do when I scan for channels?  I assumed that it filtered out the  
> unencrypted channels.

Coorect.

>  Is there anyway around it?  If I get a cable box, then I am limited  
> to the channel that the box is on, and thus only able to record the  
> one digital channel, neh?

Coorect again.

There are a couple of viable options, though.

1. The cheaper option is to get as many cable boxes as you have tuners  
and output s-video from the cable boxes to your analog tuners. This  
won't be high-def, but you'll get about DVD-quality recordings which  
are quite pleasant and might be good enough for your needs.

2. The expensive option is to get as many cable boxes as is feasible  
and one Hauppauge HD-PVR for each cable box to record component-out of  
your boxes in h.264 mpeg4. This will give you high-def quality, raise  
the requirements of the machine you're using to play back the content  
and require you to either apply unsupported patches to the current  
release, use supported code in the unstable/unreleased trunk or wait  
until the next version of MythTV is release that fully supports this  
device. (No, no one knows when it will be released.)

I have DirecTV and ran into this issue as well. I started with option  
1 and it was good. Then I went to option 2 with some major headaches  
along the way, but it's much better.

-Brad



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