[mythtv-users] Size of firewire recordings

[Yeechang Lee]

Ryan Lavender <ryanlavender at comcast.net> says:
> I would really rather get this working than go with a Cablecard,
> partly because trading our working cablebox out for MythTV would not
> go over very well in the family. And I like the challenge of problem
> solving.

You have Comcast, which people consistent report is among the better
large cable providers regarding CableCARD. I used FireWire from 2005
to 2012, and recommend that you follow Gary's advice about switching
to CableCARD:

* Aside from the upfront cost of the device itself, rent for the
  CableCARD will be much cheaper than the cable box (I pay $1.50 per
  month).
* While FireWire was 99.44% reliable for me, I achieve that
  reliability only by running a script (there are several extant) to
  regularly "prime" the FireWire connection. A potential point of
  FireWire failure, for example, was channel changing; despite the
  digits sent to the box via FireWire I nonetheless occasionally
  experienced a problem when switching channels. CableCARD has been
  100% reliable out of the box.
* Related to the above, CableCARD is simpler. Linux distributions
  have varying FireWire stacks, some not compatible; by using the
  network (even the PCI card ones, CableCARD devices avoid the issue
  entirely.
* I agree with the others regarding the outsized nature of your
  recordings. Whether because of your RNG-110 patch or not, no
  FireWire MPEG-2 recording should be larger than 7-8GB per hour—it's
  just not possible, according to the codec specifications—and
  nowadays with compression you won't see anything larger than 3.5-4GB
  per hour. CableCARD will give you, as with FireWire, the pure 100%
  digital feed straight from the cable company.