[mythtv-users] Comcast bricked me above 33 so I bricked Comcast with my wallet

[William Suetholz]

On Sat, 2010-05-08 at 15:34 -0600, John P Poet wrote:
> On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 3:20 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 2:16 PM, Nick Rout <nick.rout at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 9:11 AM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 1:53 PM, John P Poet <jppoet at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> <SNIP>
> >>>> I originally had one of Directv's DVRs (HR20), but I couldn't live
> >>>> without the extra functionality of Myth, so I traded it in for a
> >>>> couple of Directv's standard HD STBs (H20).  I then hook up the
> >>>> component (HD) outputs from the H20s to Hauppauge HD-PVRs component
> >>>> capture devices:
> >>>>
> >>>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/HDPVR
> >>>>
> >>>> The Hauppauge HD-PVR encodes the analog component video into H.264 and
> >>>> muxes in the AC3 (Dolby Digital) audio from S/PDIF.  The result is
> >>>> sent into the Myth backend computer via USB.  This means there are
> >>>> extra boxes lying around to get the job done, but they all sit in my
> >>>> office were they are generally out-of-sight.  This all works well.
> >>>>
> >>>> You should note that the Hauppauge HD-PVR does not encode any
> >>>> closed-caption information, so if you need that you would need to
> >>>> leave sub-titles turned on, on the STB.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> John
> >>>
> >>> John,
> >>>   Thanks for the info.
> >>>
> >>>   It's been my reading looking at the HDPVR spec page at Hauppage
> >>> that it only has one component video in? IF I wanted to record 2 or 3
> >>> HD programs then doesn't that get quite expensive?
> >>
> >> correct.
> >>
> >
> > Are there any HDMI devices - especially internal cards - that we know
> > of that allow content protected material to be recorded and played
> > back by Myth?
> 
> Part of the HDMI spec, is copy protection all the way through to the
> display device.  While not all STBs turn that copy protection on, most
> do, and they probably all will before long.  The only sure way of
> being able to record is to keep it in the analog domain which does not
> have copy protection.  That is why Hauppauge went with a component
> capture device instead of HDMI.
> 
> Turning 1920x1080i or 1280x720p analog video into H.264 takes quite a
> bit of muscle.  That is why the Hauppauge HD-PVRs are external
> devices, and why they are as expensive as they are.  If you really
> think about it, the HD-PVR is actually fairly inexpensive for what it
> does compared to a ATSC/QAM capture device.
> 
> BTW, the HD-PVR uses a 5v/3a wall-wart.
> 
> Personally, I use a HDHomeRun hooked up to an antenna to get all the
> OTA stations.  I only use the HD-PVR hooked up to the STB for the
> non-OTA stations.  The vast majority of my recording is via OTA, and I
> really could probably get by with just one STB/HD-PVR combo, but I
> decided it was worth the extra $ to have a second one.
> 
> John

You can always go the route of HDMI --> HDMI2Component --> HD-PVR.

I have a HDMI to Component device that I'm using to connect to my TV
that has a broken HDMI port, but 2 Component Video ports.  None of these
small frontends do component video out any more.  Not using a cable box
or blueray, so don't know how the device reacts to "protected" content.

Bill