[mythtv-users] Can Myth 'tune' these 'free' converter boxes?

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 7:58 AM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 12:23 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 12:00 PM, John Drescher <drescherjm at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 2:55 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>> Hi Jeff
>> >>>
>> >>> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 11:34 AM, Jeff <junk_inbox at verizon.net> wrote:
>> >>> <SNIP>
>> >>>>> >>   Comcast is giving me 3 of these 'free', low-end digital
>> >>>>> >> converter
>> >>>>> >> boxes. Instead of using them on TVs I was wondering whether Myth
>> >>>>> >> can
>> >>>>> >> tune them and I'll used them as a digital frontend to my
>> >>>>> >> PVR-150's. Is
>> >>>>> >> this possible?
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Yes - You would feed the S-Video and Sterio Audio outputs into your
>> >>>> PVR-150
>> >>>
>> >>> Coax actually but I get the idea.
>> >>>>
>> >>
>> >> You will probably get a better picture with component inputs to the
>> >> PVR150 instead of having to tune the 150 to channel 3
>> >>
>> >> John
>> >
>> > I will get NO picture using the S-Video input because there is NO
>> > S-Video output on this cheap and free device. Coax in, coax out.
>> > That's it. Other than two Coax connectors there is a channel 3/4
>> > switch, a place to plug in the power supply and a place to plug in a
>> > remote IR receiver.
>> >
>> > - Mark
>> >
>>
>> Please ignore. I don't know what I'm saying about S-Video here. I read
>> the top part and went to sleep.
>>
>> None the less there are no outputs on this unit other than coax so the
>> only way to use it would be to hard wire the PVR to channel 3 and use
>> the IR input to change the channel.
>>
>> - Mark

>
>
[REORDERED FOR BOTTOM POSTING]
> Mark,
>
> Have you tried this yet?  I am in the same boat:  I have Comcast, an HDHR,
> and dual PVR analog tuners that will sooner or later be useless as Comcast
> moves analog content to the digital tier (and, in some cases, encrypting it
> so that the HDHR is useless as well).
>
> Was looking for ways to get at the stuff on the digital tier that is
> currently encrypted and unavailable to the HDHR.  Channels like TruTV.  I
> would consider the HD PVR, but that is pretty expensive and will require
> that I rent yet another STB to serve as a dedicated tuner.
>
>

Hi Larry,
   I'm sorry to say I never did. The hardware I purchased for $20 sits
here getting dusty. The task never moved from want 'would like to do'
list to my actual to-do list.

   Like you, I'd like to get this working, but the two free converters
Comcast provides are used with older TV sets so I cannot experiment
with them. On the other hand my wife would like to record BBC on Myth
which would require that I rent a new STB for Myth purposes only. If I
was to do that then I could maybe look into this problem again, but to
me this task seemed overly difficult. I suppose it really isn't but
the instructions I could find at the time left me thinking it might
turn into a time sink so I didn't proceed.

   At this point I suspect that if I did rent a second STB and it was
high-def then I might be more likely to use the 1394 port to tune it,
but I'd be open to anything that worked.

Cheers,
Mark