[mythtv-users] Thinking of Switching from Cable to DirectTv

[Brad Templeton]

On Sun, Mar 06, 2005 at 10:42:41AM -0700, Dave Packham wrote:
> I have analog cable now and I'd like to switch to DirecTV sat.   I have
> 2 pvr250 that are split on the cable.  How hard/possible is it to
> control those boxes with serial ports, guessing 2 ports, one for each
> external receiver.  Do people do this?  I don't really want to use a
> IRblaster.  Does the Sat onscreen menus come up when myth changes the
> channels?  Is it transparent (analog cable like) after you got the
> serial ports working?   What model DirecTV tuners work the best here

Darn right you don't want to use an IR blaster!  These are slow and
sometimes even fail on the channel change.

But in general, analog cable is _so_ much better than satellite or digital
cable when it comes to a PVR.  


Pros:
    Guaranteed channel changes, tuning is instant (even though there is
    still a delay to restart the digital capture in your PVR)
    Quasi-acceptable live tv surf ability -- live tv surf is intolerable
    with the others

    It's never accidentally off.  (If your satelitte box gets an off
    code for some reason, or goes off in power glitch, you get no
    recording.)

    You can slap as many tuners on it as you want (satellite/dc needs a
    box for every tuner)

    One simple wire into the box

    Not transcoding pre-compressed re-expanded video


Cons:
    Digital TV/Satellite have more channels