[mythtv-users] Monolith Pre-made MythTV Box?

[Charles Iliya Krempeaux]

Hello,

On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 3:04 PM, VCRAddict
<MythTV_01 at appropriate-tech.net> wrote:
> At 12:12 PM 11/16/08 -0800, Charles Iliya Krempeaux wrote:
>  >
>    [snip]
>  >
>  > Currently, I'm just receiving TV via Cable.
>  >
>  > I have an HDTV, so I would like HDTV capabilities.
>
> Those two statements form a problematic combination.
>
> The issue is not so much a matter of MythTV's capabilities, as the lengths
> to which the cable companies' go to in their predatory marketing practices.
>  Despite the fact that 90+% of the programming material you get over cable
> TV is advertiser supported, the vast majority of it is encrypted
> _by_the_cable_company_.  They do this in a deliberate effort to lock you
> into renting (at exorbitant cost) their proprietary (and at least
> typically, uber-lame) STB/DVR systems.  Hence, regardless of what type of
> tuner card you put into a Myth TV system, you will near-certainly NOT be
> able to receive much of anything except your local broadcast channels "in
> the clear".  Now, this can and does vary somewhat from cable company to
> cable company, and from market area to market area within any given cable
> company; but the fact remains -- in MOST cases, you'll be stuck using their
> STB to get most of your programming.  (And BTW...  Just in case you're
> wondering, at least WRT to this issue, Verizon FiOS is exactly equivalent
> to "cable company"; the terms are synonymous in this context.)
>
> However...  This does not mean that all is lost.  There are two potential
> work-arounds for this problem:
>
> 1. - Per FCC ruling, your cable company MUST provide you with a STB with a
> FireWire output upon request.  Unfortunately, this law is honored more in
> the breach than in the observance; and typically, your cable company will
> do everything in their power (including outright lying to you) to avoid
> actually meeting that mandate.
>
> 2. - *IF* you have (or can get) a STB with Component Video outputs, it is
> at least theoretically possible that you could then feed those to the input
> side of something like a Hauppage HD-PVR in your Myth box, and retain
> High-Def (or at least, the cable company's watered-down version of
> High-Def) in the process.  You would also need an IR blaster to allow the
> Myth box to control the STB (for changing channels, etc.); and you would
> need a separate STB (and IR blaster) for each HD-PVR (i.e., for each
> channel of simultaneous recording capability you want).
>
> Others who have gone further down either of these roads than I have can
> flesh out the details; but this should give you the basic idea.
>
>  > I'd like to get the best via quality to my TV as possible, so I'm
>  > assuming that that's HDMI, correct?
>
> No.
>
> As I noted earlier, it all depends on what the equipment you're feeding
> wants.  But having said that, I'll also repeat this:  For your purposes,
> HDMI offers *nothing* of value over DVI-D or DVI-I.
>
>  > As far as simultaneous recordings... I've never had a PVR before... so
>  > I'm not really sure how many I will need.  How many do you suggest?
>
> Depends completely on your viewing habits.  How many VCRs (or similar) do
> you typically keep busy?

I should have been more clear describing what I have.

I get TV via "normal"/"classic" cable.  It's unencrypted and analog.

Also, I live in Canada.  (So most the USA stuff likely won't effect
me.)  Canada isn't doing the government forced HDTV switch.  We still
have, and will continue to have, normal unencrypted analog TV over
cable.  (At least where I live, Canada has never really had alot of
channels coming over the air waves... so cable TV has always really
been the norm here.)

As far as being able to play HDTV.  I was thinking about this for
videos other than that coming from cable TV.  (Like off the Internet
or whatever.)

(But thanks for all the info though.  Very interesting.)


--
Charles Iliya Krempeaux, B.Sc.
http://changelog.ca/