[mythtv-users] Can Myth 'tune' these 'free' converter boxes?

Jarod Wilson jarod at wilsonet.com
Wed Nov 25 13:29:36 UTC 2009


On Nov 25, 2009, at 7:57 AM, Ronald Frazier wrote:

>>   If Comcast starts encrypting too much stuff then Myth might be dead
>> here as I doubt we'd rent a bunch of STBs, dedicate an area for all of
>> that and pay PG&E more for electricity. Either that or look for
>> another source of media.
> 
> Huh? You can still capture the output from the DTAs the same as you
> did the old analog signal. Honestly, I don't see that anything much
> has changed here except
> 1) Some people had a brief period where they got to enjoy more
> unencrypted digital content than they previously did (ie: you got
> spoiled for a short period of time)
> 2) You'll need to add an IR blaster to control the DTA. However (maybe
> this has already been addressed in one of the comcast threads), the
> DTAs I've seen all get their IR from a sensor that plugs in via an
> 1/8" jack, so perhaps there is a way to skip the IR part and just send
> the control signals straight over the wire.

Just as another data point, the free DTAs I got with my Verizon FiOS TV service have built-in IR sensors. They're Motorola DCT-700 units:

<http://www.motorola.com/Business/US-EN/Business+Product+and+Services/TV+Video+Distribution/Customer+Premises+Equipment+(Set-tops)/All-Digital+QAM+Set-tops/DCT700_US-EN>

> 3) Yes, you do have these extra boxes, but they are relatively small
> and are very low on power draw (a couple of watts each).
> 
> Yeah, it's not perfect, and it's not a totally transparent change, but
> I think it's far from any doom-and-gloom nightmare scenario.

Yeah, definitely. There's nothing I can watch on my cable feed that I can't record.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod at wilsonet.com





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