[mythtv-users] Can Myth 'tune' these 'free' converter boxes?

Mark Knecht markknecht at gmail.com
Tue Dec 1 18:22:12 UTC 2009


On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 8:13 AM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 2:56 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 7:58 AM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 12:23 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 12:00 PM, John Drescher <drescherjm at gmail.com>
>> >> > wrote:
>> >> >> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 2:55 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com>
>> >> >> wrote:
>> >> >>> Hi Jeff
>> >> >>>
>> >> >>> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 11:34 AM, Jeff <junk_inbox at verizon.net>
>> >> >>> wrote:
>> >> >>> <SNIP>
>> >> >>>>> >>   Comcast is giving me 3 of these 'free', low-end digital
>> >> >>>>> >> converter
>> >> >>>>> >> boxes. Instead of using them on TVs I was wondering whether
>> >> >>>>> >> Myth
>> >> >>>>> >> can
>> >> >>>>> >> tune them and I'll used them as a digital frontend to my
>> >> >>>>> >> PVR-150's. Is
>> >> >>>>> >> this possible?
>> >> >>>>
>> >> >>>> Yes - You would feed the S-Video and Sterio Audio outputs into
>> >> >>>> your
>> >> >>>> PVR-150
>> >> >>>
>> >> >>> Coax actually but I get the idea.
>> >> >>>>
>> >> >>
>> >> >> You will probably get a better picture with component inputs to the
>> >> >> PVR150 instead of having to tune the 150 to channel 3
>> >> >>
>> >> >> John
>> >> >
>> >> > I will get NO picture using the S-Video input because there is NO
>> >> > S-Video output on this cheap and free device. Coax in, coax out.
>> >> > That's it. Other than two Coax connectors there is a channel 3/4
>> >> > switch, a place to plug in the power supply and a place to plug in a
>> >> > remote IR receiver.
>> >> >
>> >> > - Mark
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> Please ignore. I don't know what I'm saying about S-Video here. I read
>> >> the top part and went to sleep.
>> >>
>> >> None the less there are no outputs on this unit other than coax so the
>> >> only way to use it would be to hard wire the PVR to channel 3 and use
>> >> the IR input to change the channel.
>> >>
>> >> - Mark
>>
>> >
>> >
>> [REORDERED FOR BOTTOM POSTING]
>> > Mark,
>> >
>> > Have you tried this yet?  I am in the same boat:  I have Comcast, an
>> > HDHR,
>> > and dual PVR analog tuners that will sooner or later be useless as
>> > Comcast
>> > moves analog content to the digital tier (and, in some cases, encrypting
>> > it
>> > so that the HDHR is useless as well).
>> >
>> > Was looking for ways to get at the stuff on the digital tier that is
>> > currently encrypted and unavailable to the HDHR.  Channels like TruTV.
>> >  I
>> > would consider the HD PVR, but that is pretty expensive and will require
>> > that I rent yet another STB to serve as a dedicated tuner.
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Hi Larry,
>>   I'm sorry to say I never did. The hardware I purchased for $20 sits
>> here getting dusty. The task never moved from want 'would like to do'
>> list to my actual to-do list.
>>
>>   Like you, I'd like to get this working, but the two free converters
>> Comcast provides are used with older TV sets so I cannot experiment
>> with them. On the other hand my wife would like to record BBC on Myth
>> which would require that I rent a new STB for Myth purposes only. If I
>> was to do that then I could maybe look into this problem again, but to
>> me this task seemed overly difficult. I suppose it really isn't but
>> the instructions I could find at the time left me thinking it might
>> turn into a time sink so I didn't proceed.
>>
>>   At this point I suspect that if I did rent a second STB and it was
>> high-def then I might be more likely to use the 1394 port to tune it,
>> but I'd be open to anything that worked.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Mark
>
> I got around to hooking up my 2 Comcast DTAs, and I was surprised to see
> that the only channels available from this device are pretty much the same
> ones available on the analog tier.  They have not exposed anything from the
> digital tier;  for example, TruTV, BBC, etc.   Maybe I was just misinformed,
> but I was expecting more.
>
> Given this, and the possibility of degraded PQ with a
> digital->analog->digital conversion, I think I'll have to pass.  It would
> probably make more sense to just get another HDHR.  Or, possibly an HD-PVR,
> but that thing is so expensive and requires the rental of yet another STB.
>
>

Mostly I agree although here we did pick up maybe two or three digital
channels I didn't care about anyway. (Hallmark and maybe 1 or 2
others.)

Be careful with your HDHR money. There are enough posts here about
Comcast starting to encrypt everything that they aren't legally
required to transmit in the clear so that one of these days soon we
may only get the OTA channels unencrypted and the HDHR wouldn't any
longer get Comedy Central, TNT, TBS, etc. While I don't like that idea
at all I must admit that those channels are services I pay for and if
Comcast chooses to go the direction of making me use their equipment
to see them - i.e. rent a STB or give them up - then what can I do
besides rent STBs or not record them?

Purchasing a second HDHR is maybe $150. Renting two STBs at $7/month
is $168 so for the first year it's sort of beak even. Might make sense
to just live with a few months of STB rental and see how it shakes out
vs. purchase another HDHR and find that it's worthless 3 months from
now?

Personally I don't much care about the picture quality. It's more
about the convenience....

Cheers,
Mark


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