[mythtv-users] [Slightly OT] comcast moving to settop on Bay Area - goodbye analog

[Mark Knecht]

On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 3:29 AM, Mark Small <msmall at eastlink.ca> wrote:
> On March 8, 2009 04:09:14 Marc MERLIN wrote:
>> On Sat, Mar 07, 2009 at 10:17:52PM -0800, Marc MERLIN wrote:
>> > So,
>> > 1) you seem to be saying it's not going to be a flag day and that the
>> > analog channels are already available as digital?
>> >
>> > 2) if so, or in either case, are those digital channels (going to be)
>> > tunable with hd-homerun or encrypted and will require the DCH-3200 or
>> > equivalent (like SCIFI-HD)
>> >
>> > 3) Since I have the OTA channels tunable via HD-Homerun, are there even
>> > any analog channels going to be left that will be worth tuning (in other
>> > words, will my 3 analog tuners be sitting idle from now on)?
>>
>> 4) are the digital-analog converter boxes useful at all with mythtv?
>>
>> 5) assuming that comcast after the change ends up sucking enough that I
>> just don't have a use before them, am I correct that there is currently no
>> way to get some of those channels automatically in myth, by paying an
>> internet video provider, or not, correct?
>>    (hulu doesn't count until myth can at least stream from them)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Marc
>
> Why not get some digital cable boxes, capture the analog output with your
> existing cards, and use IR blasters to control them.
>
> Mark

This may in fact be the only solution, but it's ugly to me:

1) 2-3 more STBs. Electricity bill goes up, Comcast bill goes up.

2) Still need the PVR-150s to capture the analog output of the STBs.
Inefficient but would probably work. More work for me to get the PVR
to reliably sit at channel 3 or whatever channel the digital STBs put
out their signal.

3) Is there an IR blaster solution that doesn't require serial ports
and supports multiple STBs tuning to different channels at the same
time? I haven't found the documentation yet. I bought a USB IR Blaster
but haven't gotten it to work with my digital converter. (No time.) No
slots left in my server for a serial card and I aven't found one yet
anyway. Serial is dead in the market. Depending on it here is no
desirable.

4) If the answer to #3 is no then I think I have to look at HD STBs
controlled by Firewire. Does the Firewire solution support multiple
STBs? It seems unreliable and buggy reading this list. Slow tuning
changes. Hangups at boot time. The 1394 stack doing wrong things.
Extra cron scripts to fix problems. And again, a higher bill from
Comcast for multiple HD STBs and a LOT of work to get 1394 going.

Overall I think there's a 60/40 chance that Myth is doomed in my house
and my life is going to be sort of bleak dealing with the
repercussions of the family. I hope it's not as bad as I think it's
going to be.

And again, this is all to get recordings of the channels I pay for. I
can get the low channels with an HDHR efficiently but the family will
revolt as we watch the same small list of channels similar to Marc
Merlin's post. Without that list I'm likely to receive divorce
papers...

- Mark