[mythtv-users] Probably a FAQ Question (HD, MythTV, Cable Card, and Comcast)

[David Frascone]

Rod Smith wrote:
> On Tuesday 10 April 2007 15:02, David Frascone wrote:
>   
>> Ok, after reading quite a bit, and searching quite a bit, I have come to
>> a few conclusions:
>>
>> There is no Cable Card hardware for MythTV to use, so getting to
>> Comcast's HD and premium channels is not possible with a tuner card.
>>
>> But -- what about using a STB and blasting IR?
>>     
>
> This will work, but with some important caveats:
>
> - IR blaster configurations sometimes don't work, so you might miss some
>   recordings. How often depends on a lot of hardware and software details,
>   and even ambient light conditions.
>
> - You'll be able to record the NTSC output of the STB. This means no HD
>   content and even SD digital content will go from digital to analog and
>   back to digital, which will degrade its quality.
>
>   
>> So, the receiver needs to be at least a dual-tuner setup, and needs to
>> record HD.
>>
>> Is this possible?  I'm guessing there is a way to blast IR to two (or
>> more) Set Top Boxes, and to capture the output of the HD Comcast Set Top
>> Boxes via component, HDMI, etc.
>>     
>
> AFAIK, there's no way to capture the HD output of HD STBs on consumer-grade 
> hardware. Some STBs do have firewire output for digital capture, but my 
> understanding is that this works only with unencrypted content, so you'd do 
> as well with a suitable direct HD capture device (bypassing the STB), such as 
> an HDHomerun (dual-tuner Ethernet device) or AVerMedia AVerTVHD A180 
> (single-tuner PCI card). Such devices capture unencrypted HD content. If you 
> go this route, be sure to get something with QAM support, which is the 
> encoding method used for digital channels by cable TV operators in the US.
>
> The big question is how much content your cable provider encrypts. If you can 
> tune HD channels directly on a non-CableCard TV, then you should be able to 
> record it with MythTV and a suitable HD capture device, or perhaps using a 
> cable box's Firewire output. If not, then you'll only be able to capture an 
> SD (NTSC) version of the content using an analog (NTSC) capture device, 
> assuming your HD STB has NTSC output at all.
>
> If your provider doesn't encrypt the channels you care about, I'd suggest you 
> get a mix of digital and analog/NTSC tuners. (Some can do both.) You'll be 
> able to record a lot of stuff without an STB, but most providers do encrypt 
> at least some channels, so you may have to rent at least one STB and record 
> some content via it. You might end up with something like an analog/NTSC 
> tuner recording directly, another analog/NTSC tuner recording via the STB, 
> and a digital tuner recording directly.
>
>   
Two last (I hope) questions:

1) What is the most popular tuner for analog & digital?  (Popular for 
price / performance, features, and reliability)
2) In regard to firewire -- how does that work?  Does it just constantly 
transmit what's playing?  So mythTV would change channels on the STB, 
and then store the stream to disk?  If so, shouldn't I do this before 
even buying a tuner card?

-Dave