[mythtv-users] HD hardware: what next?

[Greg Woods]

On Sun, 2006-06-25 at 12:33 -0400, Daniel Kristjansson wrote:

> > FIREWIRE FROM MOTOROLA DCT-6412 CABLE BOX        
> > Just flat out won't work. I have tried powering off the cable box,
> > unplugging the firewire cable, and rebooting the system countless times,
> This is probably a firmware problem. 

If that is my problem then obviously I am hosed. I could get Comcast to
swap boxes and I suppose there is a small chance that would help. But I
am a bit afraid to mess with it because that box is my only currently
working source of HD. My theory was, once I had the HD3000 working, I
wouldn't need the Comcast DVR any more and I would be more free to
experiment, probably with a non-DVR box.

> but instead PCI timeouts causing the problem. 

You obviously know much more about that sort of thing than I do, but how did
you determine that?

> 
> You should be
> able to google for instructions for this.

I'm not sure exactly what to search for; haven't found anything directly relevant
yet. But I will keep trying and thank you for the suggestion.

> If you are using any 45-980 Mhz splitters,
> replace them with 5-2400 Mhz splitters (or at least 45-2000 Mhz),
> and replace any RG-59 cable with RG-6, and use good connectors.

In this case, unless I am missing something truly major (a distinct
possibility), I don't think I am having a signal strength problem. I
admit I hadn't considered this previously because the TV and the cable
box are both able to tune the QAM channels even with the splitter in
place. But it's a good test, so I tried removing both the signal amp and
the splitter from the line. I plugged the line coming into the house
directly into the HD3000. This does not help. Neither does plugging the
output of the signal amp into the HD3000 (bypassing just the splitter).
Furthermore, the reported signal strength is always between 97-100% with
or without the splitter.

--Greg