[mythtv-users] Network execs added 1 minute to program length

[Rod Smith]

On Monday 01 October 2007 19:48:52 Gary Elder wrote:
> > Alternatively, buy another tuner card. Even a card that's not as good as
> > your main card might be acceptable for this sort of contingency, and you
> > can find bargains on software encoding and non-Hauppauge MPEG-2 cards on
> > eBay. OTOH, if you're a satellite TV subscriber this will require you to
> > rent another receiver box, which will cost more than a new tuner card in
> > the long run.
>
> I was hoping there was a feature that would start the conflicting
> program once the higher priority program had finished recording.  Being
> on a tight budget, I hadn't considered a second tuner card but that
> might be the best solution.

As I said, you can find bargains on eBay, particularly on off-brand equipment 
and software-encoding cards. You might not want to use such a card as your 
primary tuner, but it may be perfectly good as a secondary/backup tuner. For 
instance, I bought an AverTV M150-D on eBay for a ridiculously low price. I 
subsequently did a write-up on the card for the MythTV wiki 
(http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/AVerMedia_M150-D). I'd be reluctant to 
recommend this card as a primary tuner because of its quirks, but it should 
do fine as a tuner that's used less frequently. In fact, the same eBay seller 
has a couple more of this card available right now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110175596691
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110176264265

I'm unaffiliated with this seller except as a satisfied customer. Note that 
this specific version lacks a mounting bracket and only has coax inputs (no 
S-video or composite inputs). Depending on your needs, these limitations 
could be serious problems. Also, the seller is selling these cards untested 
and unwarranted, so they ARE a bit of a gamble. If you lose that gamble, 
you'll end up saving little or no money compared to buying something new.

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