[mythtv-users] Multiple Tuners/Digital Cable (Newbie)

[Jarod C. Wilson]

On Saturday, Oct 11, 2003, at 20:06 US/Pacific, Mike Green wrote:

> a) Record an "analog" channel while watching live tv on the "digital" 
> channels
> and vice versa.

Despite the fact you have Comcast "Digital" cable (I have it too), all 
channels are analog. The only part that is really "digital" is the 
guide info. The only truly digital channels are the HDTV ones, which 
don't come through on that cable box (I have one of those too, along 
with one that does do HD, the Motorola DCT5100). What I presume you 
mean to differentiate is the channels that a standard tuner can get, 
and the channels that require a cable box.

> b) Record the analog and digital channels at the same time.

Recording two channels at once is not a problem.

> I am hoping I can achieve this by doing the following:
>
> Have one pvr-250 for recording the "analog" channels that don't need 
> to be
> converted through the digital converter.  Channels 1 - 125?

Coax straight into the PVR-250 does just that.

> Have a second pvr-250 to view and record live the channels that are 
> digital
> (pay channels etc..), hopefully using an IR Blaster or the RS232 port 
> on back
> of the converter box.

That can be done also. However, you can ALSO take coax straight into 
this PVR-250 in addition to the feed from the cable box. Myth can 
auto-switch between the inputs as necessary. I'd suggest setting up a 
channels file for 1-125, assigning that to the coax inputs on both 
cards, then setting up channels 126-999 for the cable box feed.

A few more cables involved, but it'll make things easier on the system 
when tuning in the lower channels on both cards. Mucking with 
controlling the cable box (which is sometimes slow, and you get the 
annoying OSD crap in your recordings on occasion) only comes into play 
if you want to record or watch something through MythTV that is on a 
higher channel.

> Have a third card with an mpeg2 decoder to view output on the tv.

Don't get a 3rd card. Just substitute a PVR-350 for one of the PVR-250s 
to accomplish this.

> To do this, can I just split the coax and run one half to the 
> converter, the
> other connection to card 1, and the third connection from the 
> converter to
> card 2?  Like I said, this stuff baffles me :)

Just make sure you have enough signal strength. Get a good splitter 
and/or an amplified one. Personally, I'd split the coax three ways, one 
to each TV card and one to the cable box. Then feed from the cable box 
to the secondary TV card w/S-Video.

> I assume I will only need one sound card for playback since the 
> pvr-250's
> encode audio into the mpeg2, is this correct?

Absolutely.

--Jarod

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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