[mythtv-users] Ceton InfiniTV 4

[Phil Bridges]

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 10:27 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On Monday, August 30, 2010 07:31:23 pm Phil Bridges wrote:
>> On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 8:59 PM, jedi <jedi at mishnet.org> wrote:
>> >
>> >    Frankly, I would never be able to trust the cable company not to screw
>> > me over at some later date. I would rather have an output that I know I
>> > can always record from even if it is a degraded one.
>>
>> Pretty sure the only way that's going to happen is if you use an antenna.
>
> For some of us that's not an option, unless I want CBS.
>
> I'm not necessarily advocating satellite here, just pointing out that DISH and DirectTV are at least consistent continent-
> wide, unlike cable providers where the same operator might be different even in adjacent markets.
>
> At least you know what you are going to get, with less chance of weekly changes.
>
> My fear with my DISH receiver is that the forces of evil will be able to get the component outputs disabled, but they
> would have to deal with a LOT more unhappy older set users than a single CATV franchise might, so they might be less
> inclined to do so.
>
> I have both CATV and DISH, if I want to be as certain as possible that a recording will happen I go with DISH, except
> during a major snowstorm of course, but in that case both providers are unreliable, and even my electrical power is iffy. I
> only have UPS capacity for an hour or so.
>
> In my experience  the satellite providers seem to be more Myth-friendly than most cable systems. Decrypting premium
> channels is not a problem, whatever you pay for comes out in the clear as HDMI, component or composite (automatically
> converted to SD). You can even get an (SD) RF output. I've not encountered SOC (yet).
>
> Granted you need an STB (receiver, IRD, whatever you want to call it), but nothing's perfect.
>

I don't see what the massive difference is between using a satellite
STB and a CATV STB.  Sure, with DirecTV you can control the box with a
serial connection, but you can at least change channels on a lot of
cable boxes with firewire.

That said, there's no guarantee form either option that your component
output is going to be active.  The post I was responding to wanted an
output they could "can always record from."  No guarantee of that with
cable or satellite; ergo, my response that the only guarantee of
recording anything is to record the available channels they can get
OTA.