[mythtv-users] Dish gotchas?

[Jeff Simpson]

> > to a channel we didn't have it would screw up any future recordings until I came home and fixed it, OR she found the Dish remote and pressed channel up or down.
> >
>
> Been there.  Done that.  I "fixed" it by adding a channel up command to
> my change_channel script just before the channel number is sent.  It
> slows down tuning, but the extra 0.4 seconds of the show isn't worth the
> risk.  :)

My direcTV STB has a command that turns off remote input, so there's
no way for the remote to tell the STB to do anything :-) That would
fix that pretty good I bet, and it would prevent the in-laws from
pressing buttons.

> > I could remove those channels I didn't pay for from the datadirect lineup, but Dish adds and changes channels on almost a daily basis, so it's an uphill battle.

Yeah, that would be a downside. I like having the datadirect lineup
match the actual channels I get on DirecTV so that way when I search
for things to record, it will only result in channels I get (no fun
finding a great movie on, only to discover that it's on showtime).
Curious to see what comes up in 0.20 - I hope there's an option for
turning a particular channel on for specific days, that would be good
for those "free preview weekends".

> So, the only real difference between DISH and DirecTV from a Myth
> standpoint is that DISH requires an IR transmitter.  However, I like
> using my one serial port for changing channels on all boxes.  Using
> DirecTV receivers with serial ports requires multiple serial ports on
> the Myth box (or hacking up a hardware or software solution that's far
> more complex than a LIRC transmitter/LIRC).

I'm thinking that whatever hardware/software solution can handle
multiple serial connections from a single serial connection will be
more expensive in time/money than an additional 2 or 4 port serial
card would be....but it is a neat idea, I wonder if there are any
software-controlled serial switches that are reasonably priced. If a
serial card is no good, hypothetically a USB hub with USB->serial
converters would work as well (especially since most STBs are 9600
baud, the speed of a shared USB port isn't really a problem).

> > I say stick with cable.
> >
>
> I would only say the same if it's impossible to improve the quality of
> the cable signal (and, make sure you're not setting unrealistic
> expectations for the quality of the DISH signal--the limiting factor is
> NTSC, and a good analog NTSC signal is not much different from a good
> digital signal that's output as NTSC).  Check the post I linked above
> and make sure you've set appropriate recording profile parameters or
> send the signal direct to a TV (to ensure it's the signal that's the issue).

I agree - check the signal quality of analog before deciding
wholeheartedly to go digital. If you can, plug a TV into the cable as
far up the pipe as you can (maybe in a basement or something there the
coax splitters are). Disconnect all the other lines and view it right
from there. If it looks fine there and worse upstairs, it must be the
miles of coax in your walls causing the signal degredation. It's true
that a digital signal won't have that problem (it will either work or
not work, at some threshold of signal quality). But if the limiting
factor isn't the cabling, you won't see much improvement, since the
actual video will still be 720x480 NTSC.

 - Jeff