[mythtv-users] MediaCenter Plan/Help

[Thomas Witzel]

Hello all,

I'm planning on using MythTV for my media center. I have not purchased 
anything yet and my investigation/planning is now causing major confusion 
for me.

This are the facts so far:

  - I'm going to have Comcast digital cable and will most likely get a
    DCT6412 with it.
  - I'm going to have a 42" Plasma display (no make picked yet, due to
    the confusion) I'm looking to get one with 1024x768 resolution.

Now here comes my confusion:

A) In most stores here in the Boston area the picture on the displayed
    42" panels is outright ratty. They often show DVD's and on most
    displays every motion of a character causes so strong artefacts
    that it is unwatchable. Store attendants assured me that this is
    normal. Why would anyone want to buy this, if that was normal.
    I was thinking maybe something is wrong with the conversion, but
    I'm told that there is no such thing as format conversion.

B) I was planning on connecting the Display by just a single DVI-D
    cable and have all the components in a cabinet some 18ft away.
    In the store I was told that the DVI-D cable wouldn't provide
    good quality (which makes no sense to me), and that I would need
    a component cable anyway to watch TV stations that are not
    HD (which also makes no sense to me, however comcast couldn't
    promise me that I wouldn't need it).
    Now, if I'm right and a DVI-D is sufficient (my audio will go
    somewhere else), it seems like none of the home-theatre receivers
    support DVI-D sources for switching. In every store they want
    to make me convert to components or even svideo.

C) Can MythTV drive a Display with 720p (assuming that will be the
    native mode of my TV) and have devent looking DVD playback ?
    Is there anyway to passthrough the DVI-D from the comcast box
    or to switch between the different DVI sources controlled by
    MythTV ?

D) Im getting confused about the firewire as well. Will it now
    work for recording, or not. If the content is 5C encrypted, can
    the encrypted stream be recorded and later be displayed by my
    Display (which supports HTCP) ?

Thank you so much for all your help,

Thomas