[mythtv-users] Probably a FAQ Question (HD, MythTV, Cable Card, and Comcast)

[Rod Smith]

On Tuesday 10 April 2007 15:02, David Frascone wrote:
> Ok, after reading quite a bit, and searching quite a bit, I have come to
> a few conclusions:
>
> There is no Cable Card hardware for MythTV to use, so getting to
> Comcast's HD and premium channels is not possible with a tuner card.
>
> But -- what about using a STB and blasting IR?

This will work, but with some important caveats:

- IR blaster configurations sometimes don't work, so you might miss some
  recordings. How often depends on a lot of hardware and software details,
  and even ambient light conditions.

- You'll be able to record the NTSC output of the STB. This means no HD
  content and even SD digital content will go from digital to analog and
  back to digital, which will degrade its quality.

> So, the receiver needs to be at least a dual-tuner setup, and needs to
> record HD.
>
> Is this possible?  I'm guessing there is a way to blast IR to two (or
> more) Set Top Boxes, and to capture the output of the HD Comcast Set Top
> Boxes via component, HDMI, etc.

AFAIK, there's no way to capture the HD output of HD STBs on consumer-grade 
hardware. Some STBs do have firewire output for digital capture, but my 
understanding is that this works only with unencrypted content, so you'd do 
as well with a suitable direct HD capture device (bypassing the STB), such as 
an HDHomerun (dual-tuner Ethernet device) or AVerMedia AVerTVHD A180 
(single-tuner PCI card). Such devices capture unencrypted HD content. If you 
go this route, be sure to get something with QAM support, which is the 
encoding method used for digital channels by cable TV operators in the US.

The big question is how much content your cable provider encrypts. If you can 
tune HD channels directly on a non-CableCard TV, then you should be able to 
record it with MythTV and a suitable HD capture device, or perhaps using a 
cable box's Firewire output. If not, then you'll only be able to capture an 
SD (NTSC) version of the content using an analog (NTSC) capture device, 
assuming your HD STB has NTSC output at all.

If your provider doesn't encrypt the channels you care about, I'd suggest you 
get a mix of digital and analog/NTSC tuners. (Some can do both.) You'll be 
able to record a lot of stuff without an STB, but most providers do encrypt 
at least some channels, so you may have to rent at least one STB and record 
some content via it. You might end up with something like an analog/NTSC 
tuner recording directly, another analog/NTSC tuner recording via the STB, 
and a digital tuner recording directly.

-- 
Rod Smith
http://www.rodsbooks.com