[mythtv-users] Partial and No Locks

[jr]

On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Brad DerManouelian
<myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:
>
> On Jan 1, 2009, at 1:07 PM, jr wrote:
>
> > Sigh, of course. So what does checking "Unencrypted channels only"
> > do when I scan for channels?  I assumed that it filtered out the
> > unencrypted channels.
>
> Coorect.

Odd.  The channels that are listing as [LAMe] are the channels yeilded
by Scan for Channels when "Unencrypted channels only" is checked.
At the moment, I do not have a digital cable plan.  I am supposedly
all analog and was surprised to see all the digital goodness show up.
That makes me curious as to what is actually coming in.


> >  Is there anyway around it?  If I get a cable box, then I am limited
> > to the channel that the box is on, and thus only able to record the
> > one digital channel, neh?
>
> Coorect again.
>
> There are a couple of viable options, though.
>
> 1. The cheaper option is to get as many cable boxes as you have tuners
> and output s-video from the cable boxes to your analog tuners. This
> won't be high-def, but you'll get about DVD-quality recordings which
> are quite pleasant and might be good enough for your needs.
>
> 2. The expensive option is to get as many cable boxes as is feasible
> and one Hauppauge HD-PVR for each cable box to record component-out of
> your boxes in h.264 mpeg4. This will give you high-def quality, raise
> the requirements of the machine you're using to play back the content
> and require you to either apply unsupported patches to the current
> release, use supported code in the unstable/unreleased trunk or wait
> until the next version of MythTV is release that fully supports this
> device. (No, no one knows when it will be released.)
>
> I have DirecTV and ran into this issue as well. I started with option
> 1 and it was good. Then I went to option 2 with some major headaches
> along the way, but it's much better.
>
> -Brad
>

Alas. So be it.  I have an HD-PVR put up in the closet for when it
wont be a major headache.  For the moment, I guess that I will just
run the PVR-150 and the HVR-1600.  I can live with the analog cable
channels plus the digital HD broadcast channels that I get off the
digital side of the 1600.

-jr