[mythtv] s-video input / widescreen tv ?

[Laurent Farcy]

Hi all,

First I must admit what you've been doing with MythTV is quite 
impressive. Here in France, we haven't even got Tivo or ReplayTV boxes. 
It's been awhile since I envy you being able to enjoy DVR. And now, 
thanks to you, it's available for free (at least no subscription fee).

Obviously, now, I'm thinking of building my own MythTV box and I've got 
some questions I would like to get answered before starting buying and 
assembling anything (I browsed the mailing list but I haven't found any 
definitive answers).

1/ I've got a digital cable box I would like to be the main input for 
MyhtTV. So, I guess I have to plug it to the s/video input of the tuner 
card and the line in of my sound card. From what I read in the mailing 
list, you have to trick in the code to select the s-video input instead 
of the television for recordings. But soon the 'select your input for 
recording' feature will be included ? Am I right ? By the way, if I can 
be of any help for code updates...

2/ Though my cable box will be my main input, I will plug my rf antenna 
to the tuner card. So next question is : does MythTV manage input 
selection/switch for for live watching/pausing/forwarding ? A feature to 
come maybe ?

3/ Not so many threads talk about widescreen tvs/programmes. Although, 
some of you guys own one. So, to make short, my question is whether 
MythTV compatible with widescreen programmes and TVs ? IMHO, 'compatible 
with widescreen programmes' would mean recordings happen in anamorphic 
aspect ratio (whenever the source is anamorphic) so that when you read 
them you can still expand it to 16:9 (whilst it's been recorded in 4:3 
anamorphic format). And 'compatible with widescreen tv' would mean you 
can generate a tv-output signal which is 4:3 anamorphic so that your tv 
can expand it to 16:9. Am I clear/right ?

4/ Last, I'm wondering if there's a difference in terms of quality 
between tv tuner cards for video grabbing, and particularly in my case 
for s-video input grabbing. The differences could be, I guess, on 
maximum resolution, visual quality, widescreen handling, ... So if you 
could share your experience, I would appreciate your feedback.

A lot of questions for a first post... So many thanks in advance for 
your answers.

Laurent