[mythtv-users] Digital cable and two tuner cards

[Nathan Richardson]

I'm working on setting up a MythTV system with two tuner cards so I
can do picture-in-picture, record two programs at once, or watch a
different channel from what I'm recording.

Anyway, I have digital cable, and I understand that to use it with
MythTV (or any HTPC), I need to routh the signal through the digital
cable box first, then use a serial cable or IR blaster to change the
channel. That's the setup I intend to use with the first card, but it
raises two questions I hope someone can help with:

1) If I do this, aren't the tuner capabilities of the PVR-250 and
similar cards useless? Does any company offer an MPEG encoder card
without a tuner (at a better price, of course). Am I wrong about this?

2) For the second tuner/encoder card, I intend to connect it directly
to the cable. I realize this will prevent me from getting channels
over 125 (or maybe 60, I've heard different reports). This is fine,
since It will only be used if I want to watch a second channel. As
long as I can get ESPN or CNN, or my girlfriend can find something to
watch while I record the Bloodhound Gang's video back catalog on
channel 700 (or whatever). Is there any reason why this wouldn't work?
And if I later conned comcast into giving me a second cable decoder
box, could MythTV handle changing channels on 2 boxes separately with
IR blasters?

Thanks,

Nathan Richardson

Setup (planned)
Asus Pundit
Celeron 2.4GHz
Hauppauge 250 (x2, unless there is a cheaper solution as above)
512MB RAM