[mythtv-users] Beginner Question

Anthony Vito anthony.vito at gmail.com
Sun Dec 19 20:27:36 UTC 2004


> I am doing all my research before I dive into my MythTV HD project (I am new
> to Myth & Linux, and fairly new ot HD...so bare with me:).  I am using a
> digital cable box from Time Warner. 
> I understand that my cable stream is encrypted going into my cable box,
> which requires me to use their box. 

Oh it's worse then "encrypted". Funny thing about Time Warner... They
don't use _any_ standards for _anything_ ... "Road Runner" their cable
internet service, doesn't even adhere to DOCSIS standards, that they
paid millions to help create.... Their "digital" channels don't even
come close to using ATSC specs. They are most likely extremely low
bitrate mpeg2 or perhaps even mpeg4. You can see compression artifacts
all the time when watching "digital" and "HD" stations will Time
Warner. They don't care about quality, they just want to pack in as
many stations as possible. Cause saddly... there isn't many people
that are going to notice the difference...

I have time warner.... I use S-video into a PVR-250 or btv capture
with an IR-blaster to change the channels on the box. I also have a
pchdtv-2000 card in that computer that gets me my OTA HD stations.
Without support for firewire, I think that's the cheapest/easiest/most
capatible way to do things right now.

> But why can't cards like pcHDTV3000
> read the component video coming out of my cable box. 

Component video is an analog colorspace signal format. Just a step up
from SVideo really.


-- 
Anthony Vito
anthony.vito at gmail.com


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