[mythtv-users] Direct TV implementation?

[Gavin Haslett]

On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 00:46 -0400, Jim Trudell wrote:
> Thanks for that link.  It seems theres no magic, its the exact way i thought
> it would be, in which case, i'm going to have to move on to another
> solution.  I'd like to be able to record and watch or do PIP with this
> solution and for that, i'd need dual boxes and a bunch of workarounds.
> Thanks again

No workarounds required, but yes you will need multiple tuner boxes.
This is required no matter how you implement, unless you get a box
specifically from DirecTV that's designed for PIP. Even then you can't
integrate that with MythTV and use Myth's PIP.

I've got a DirecTV setup that I pretty much use the way you want to use
it. I have a backend with 2 tuner cards (PVR250's) and two external
DirecTV boxes connected to the two serial interfaces on my machine. Myth
then controls these boxes through serial connections therefore changing
channels without all that mucking about with LIRC. My backend is
currently the same box as my frontend, but that may change in the future
(planning to move my backend and DTV boxes into the basement). 

I can do two recordings at once, watch and record or do PIP and I have
no problems whatsoever. I can also attach MythTV as a frontend from my
main PC in my study (which I'm writing this email on) and happily watch
live TV, recordings or videos and not affect my kids watching their
cartoons downstairs. Now, if I try to do an apt-get dist-upgrade on the
main backend that might be a different story <grin>

Basically, I think Myth works better than any other solutions out there,
with some caveats. Note that if you get a box from DirecTV that supports
PIP and so forth (I think some of the series 2 DirecTivo do that), it's
actually two tuners in the box with two cables coming off your satellite
dish. Not a pretty setup, and certainly no worse than what I've got.
Once I get all the cables run to the basement I'll have a REALLY clean
entertainment center with just the hard-drive-less frontend in it.

Gavin