[mythtv-users] Dual tuner info

[Khanh Tran]

I'm going to talk about this with a basic two tuner setup.  One, because
it's easier and two, because that's what I have :)

So the setup is:

Listing #1: Digital Cable with all basic channels removed Listing #2:
Basic Channels

Tuner #1:
	Composite Input -> Listing #1
	Television Input -> Listing #2

Tuner #2:
	Composite Input -> Listing #1
	Television Input -> Listing #2

Let's now say Tuner #1 is busy recording digital channel 300.  What
happens with Tuner #2 if my wife wants to tune to digital channel 160
and doesn't realize the digital box is in use?  Won't Tuner #2 attempt
to make a channel change on the cable box that's busy feeding Tuner #1?

Thanks for all the help!

-Khanh


-----Original Message-----
From: James Orr [mailto:james at orrwhat.net] 
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2004 9:58 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] Dual tuner info

On Thu, 2004-04-22 at 19:08, Poobah wrote:
> Does your basic cable have anything that the cable box doesn't?  If 
> not, you don't need the Television Input -> Listing #2 for cards 1 and

> 2.  It is redundant cabling and extra degradation with that many
splitters.
> 
> If you choose 2 different types of listings, there will be double 
> channels in the listings, even if some of those channels are the same.
> Another problem is that if you start watching live TV on the basic 
> cable only card (assuming the other 2 are busy), the only way to force

> it later (after the others are done) to switch over to the digital and

> get the extra channels is to drop out of Live TV and select Watch TV 
> from the menu.
> 
> I lasted in this mode for about a month before I got a second cable 
> box and re-configured all my Listings...

Well, the cable package I have includes two digital boxes anyway.  But,
as I said, my ultimate goal is to have three tuners because
occaisionally there are actually three things on at once I would like to
see.

Now, the best solution would be a means for MythTV to recognize or be
told that channel 5 in source 1 is the same as channel 5 in source 2 (or
even channel 3 is channel 4).  Any developers know how feasible this
would be?  I *think* it would only have to affect places where the user
actually views the listings.  Except of course, any recordings set for
this channel would then be this channel or that channel.

The reason I used the television inputs in addition to the composite
inputs in my example is so that I could use two sets of television
listings with no duplicate channels.  If I didn't add the television
inputs to those cards I wouldn't be able to record/watch 3 of the basic
cable channels without also having duplicate channel listings.  When I
take the duplicate basic channels out of the digital listing I still
need a way of recording them, thus the use of the other input.

Note that I will be using at least 2 backends when I get all this setup,
so I won't be having all 3 tuner cards in one PC :).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: James Orr [mailto:james at orrwhat.net]
> Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2004 14:42
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Dual tuner info
> 
> On Thu, 2004-04-22 at 15:50, Jarod C. Wilson wrote:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> > 
> > On Thursday 22 April 2004 11:20, Khanh Tran wrote:
> > > Can someone point me in the direction of good instructions on dual
> tuner
> > > setups?  It seems like an obscure thing to find.  I have them
> working OK
> > > so far, but the EPG shows two copies of the channel.
> > 
> > That means you set up two separate channel sources for each tuner. 
> > If
> they are
> > for the same source, just assign that sources to both tuners.
> > 
> > > Also, depending on
> > > which one you choose, the backend will come back with an error
> saying
> > > that the tuner is in use if you choose two programs in the same
> timeslot
> > > to record.  While this isn't a problem for me, the WAF will be low
> on
> > > remembering "which" of the two EPG items to choose...
> > 
> > Go back into setup, clear out your epg, delete the second video
> source, assign
> > the first one to both tuner inputs.
> 
> So there's no way you can tell myth that a channel in one source is 
> the same as a channel in another?  I'm not in this situation yet, but 
> I forsee I will be in the future.
> 
> My ultimate goal is to have three tuners, two for my DCT boxes and a 
> third with regular cable.
> 
> So, for the first two, no problem, just set the same source as they 
> are identical.
> 
> The third presents a problem as just adding another basic cable source

> would result in duplicate channels ... unless ...  and i'm basically 
> working this out as I type here so bear with me ...
> 
> Listing #1: Digital Cable with all basic channels removed Listing #2: 
> Basic Channels
> 
> Tuner #1:
> 	Composite Input -> Listing #1
> 	Television Input -> Listing #2
> 
> Tuner #2:
> 	Composite Input -> Listing #1
> 	Television Input -> Listing #2
> 
> Tuner #3:
> 	Television Input -> Listing #2
> 
> This would probably make a bit of a cable nightmare at the back and 
> may require a few cable splitters to setup.
> 
> MythTV is smart enough to know that it can't record the television 
> input of tuner 1 if it's using the composite already, right?  Would
this work?
--
James Orr <james at orrwhat.net>