[mythtv-users] Frontend as cable settop box--using Live-TV

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 2:23 PM, lists.md301 <lists.md301 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I throw this out as food for thought:
>
> I realize (and understand) that Live-TV has been of late a somewhat
> buggy/neglected feature, for good reasons.

The most important reasons are that few of the devs use the feature,
and that it usually requires specific configurations (which the devs do
not have or even have available because of geographic realities),
so when various configurations fail, there are just no way to debug,
and, of course, lack of time (resources).

> Because of the relatively recent FCC decision which allows cable providers
> to encrypt even basic cable, those of us who use clear QAM are losing basic
> functionality with minimal equipment setup (built-in TV tuners).  To
> maintain what we have, we're eventually going to have to pay for it, one way
> or the other.

That is not at all clear (although I agree it is likely in the long run). The
"major" MSOs will give you a free HD-DTA (or two) or equivalent (i.e.
CableCard) for two years.  And perhaps longer ("depending on market
requirements").  I know I had some of the original SD DTAs which they
had threatened (originally) to start charging for after a few years, and
even four years later they never did (I finally returned them because I was
tired of storing them for Comcast).  I would suggest that it may be
prudent for anyone who "gets the call" about basic encryption get those
free HD-DTAs during the "promotion" period, "just in case" they later
want/need them (since after the promotion period, they will no longer
be free).  If your MSO starts charging after two years (yes, that means
you have to actually read the bill), return them.  But it is not at all clear
they will (start charging).

> If I'm eventually going to have to go to the trouble of running a second
> coax drop (and installing an attic antenna to go with it), I'll might as
> well run Cat6 while I'm at it and put a new MythTV frontend there to use as
> a set-top box.

I'll point out that OTA often has better quality than cable (due to the
cable company transcoding into a lower bitrate).  OTA has its
advantages.

> But for that to work optimally, LiveTV functionality
> (sourced from my HDHR Prime) that doesn't crash my system would be helpful.
> Yes, often I'll probably end up watching recorded (in-progress) shows, but
> this would be one setup where I might be channel surfing occasionally as
> well.
>
> So please, don't abandon LiveTV--the changes our content providing overlords
> are making it a more, not less, desirable feature.

I have never heard anyone say "Abandon LiveTV" (although from time
to time I have heard comments about it being a twisty maze of
passages, all different, and C-4 might be an answer).

Personally, if I cared about LiveTV, and it was not working, and I was
unable to perform the necessary debugging(*), I would consider
offering(**) the availability of a remote dedicated/isolated/performant
development system that exhibits the failure with a long term
availability commitment (like a few years). With 100% remote
access (kvm with remote ISO support, root access, remote power
cycle, etc.  Perhaps a spiderduo as the kvm).  Such remote
development systems, if they were available in differing geographic
regions, would actually be helpful for many cases where the current
development process is iterative.  If MythTV were a project run by
a corporation, such remote systems would be an expected cost of
doing business.  Providing that type of system is probably a high
barrier for most users, but that is the only way some of these
(edge case) bugs are likely to be able to get resolved, should the
devs find some more of that (ever more elusive) free time, and
would, it seems to me, something that people with a different
skill sets might be able to contribute to the community (not
everyone can code C++, and not everyone can do good documentation,
and not everyone could contribute a remote access system, but all
those things can make the project better).

Of course, another way to (perhaps) get resources would be to
offer a bounty to find someone willing to learn MythTV, and
participate in the development community, to work on and debug
your particular issues.  I have no idea how successful that would
be, but there is always http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Bounty and
see if there are any takers.

Gary

(*) I can not remember the last time I used LiveTV.  As I recall,
it did work.  And if I did use LiveTV, and it did not work, I would
invest the time to debug it in my environment.  So I have no
standing, to be honest.

(**) I am not a dev, and I have no idea whether they think having
such remote systems would be valuable (or just another time
waster).  But it might be an interesting conversation to have.
Perhaps starting with some buildbots(***) that can do unit testing
for such things as EIT, or closed captions.

(***) Buildbots can be lighter weight.