[mythtv-users] Server/adding new card dilemma, HD/hardware questions

[R. G. Newbury]

Bobby Gill wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 3:02 PM, R. G. Newbury <newbury at mandamus.org> wrote:
> 
>> Dan Ritter wrote:
>>> On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 11:31:09PM -0400, R. G. Newbury wrote:
>>>> Presuming you have a firewire output, you would feed that to a firewire
>>>> input on your mythbox. Myth has the capability. You would also need an
>>>> IR blaster to 'talk' to the STB, to change channels at the correct time,
>>>> for recording. All input through the firewire input must be 'pre-tuned'
>>>> at the STB. The IR blaster is just a computer controlled remote.
>>> If true (and it may be), that's a Rogers'-specific misfeature. In
>> general,
>>> STBs with FireWire can be controlled through FW.
>>
> Oops didn't mention, I'm in Brampton, Ontario :)

I'm further southeast, in Mississauga. Lorne Park, near the lake.
Same Rogers cable lineup as you.

> So if I'm understanding correctly it appears that it'd be quite the task to
> get the Rogers box working with the HD1212 card (correct me if I'm wrong) vs
> just tacking on another PVR150. My question is, would the capture quality
> step-up with the HD1212 when all is said and done be worth it vs settling
> for another pvr150? (I really do like that the HD1212 would futureproof when
> we get HD in the house.)

I guess determining whether it would be 'quite the task' to a certain 
extent depends upon how linux knowledgeable you are and whether you 
don't mind fighting with the gremlins every once in a while. Since you 
already have a mythbox, I guess the answers are 'knowledgeable enough' 
and 'no, I don't mind'.

On the one side you have a PVR 150 card which gets a feed from the 
cable. It is the analog side of the pipe. It is tuned by myth and 
outputs a digital stream to your hard disk. The analog digital 
compression is done in hardware.

I have just wasted some time looking at the Rogers website, which makes 
it clear that unless you have an HD capable set top box, your ONLY 
outputs from the STB will be S-video or composite. S-video and composite 
are analog, standard definition signals.

To record that signal on the mythbox, you will need to route that analog 
input to something like your PVR150. The PVR150 and 500 have S-video 
inputs, so that would work well. Except for dealing with channel 
changing, you will see no real difference, although the originally 
digital signal from the STB may be better than the pure analog one.

The HD level boxes such as the Explorer 3250HD have both component and 
DVI outputs. I don't know of any way to use the DVI output as as input. 
The HD1212 takes the three cable analog component input and outputs a 
digital stream. From what I read, it does that reasonably well already. 
The driver is beta and you may have to switch to SVN trunk to get it 
working (not sure about that). (There's one 3250HD on ebay.ca at present 
with 3 hours left on the auction, going for $170 and another with 5 days 
left, for $152.50, if you wanted to know the price to upgrade.)

The Pace551 has firewire outputs as well as 2 component outputs. 
Presumably these are enabled. But firewire is (according to the list) 
sometimes twitchy. You can add a firewire card (assuming a spare PCI 
slot) for about $20...Tiger Direct or Canada Computers.

If you want to know more about these boxen, try digitalhome.ca where 
there are lots of threads.


> Now let me pose an example so I'm clear on what I'd have to do and whether
> it'd be worth it. If I have my Myth server box in the basement and I have my
> desktop PC frontend in a room upstairs (as I do currently, not sure how it
> will be in the new house), then would the Rogers box sit in the basement
> plugged into the Myth box and bada boom bada bing that's it? The mention of
> the IR blaster needed also adds confusion for me as it sounds like I'd need
> to have a remote right at the server or am I misunderstanding??

Well the boxes need to be near each other, so that the cables will 
reach. Even firewire has a reasonably short limit for the cable. And I 
presume that the TV is nearby too.

If you have a firewire enabled box, then the channel changing etc. can 
be done by the mythbox over the firewire cable (I just learned that 
today!). If you are not using firewire, you have to use an IR blaster 
setup, which acts just like a remote to tell the STB to change channels. 
I have an IguanaIr which is a USB infra-red receiver/transmitter and it 
can be used as an IR blaster. So that is another reason why the myth box 
needs to be near the STB. The Iguana was $40 landed iirc. There are 
cheaper substitutes out there. Myth plus some scripts handles the rest.

You do wnat multiple outputs from the STB remember, if you want to be 
able to watch directly on the tv And remember that you cannot do THAT 
when you are recording using the STB...choices choices...


> Also I don't think my Myth box mobo has any firewire input, the mobo is many
> years old and I have moved it around case to case oodles of times, never
> seen a firewire input IIRC (but will check when I get home tonight). If it
> doesn't, then that's probably the reason to go with a new mobo/cpu/ram
> purchase.

It may be that the best route for the moment, is to add a firewire card, 
upgrade (swap) your stb for a better one (Rogers will do that for free I 
understand), and work on getting ready for when you do want to switch to 
HD. With an upgraded stb, that may be when you finally upgrade the 
mobo/cpu etc. then just upgrade your service with Rogers.

Geoff