[mythtv-users] Maybe a slightly different usage model for Myth with DirecTV encrypted HD?

[Mark Knecht]

On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 6:14 PM, John P Poet <jppoet at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 6:55 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>> 2) Much, if not most, HD content is now or soon will be encrypted.
>> Even SD material is already almost totally encrypted on Comcast which
>> is why I dropped them.
>
>
> OTA is still, and must remain unecrypted.  I use a HDHomeRun to record
> all the major networks.
>

As do I. That's 5-10 channels, not 100 HD and 500 total channels that
I can record on the DTV DVR.

>
> <snip>
>
>> True, I have to watch the programs using their hardware, but no one
>> has suggested any solution to that as far as I know, unless I'm
>> misunderstanding the HD-PVR as I think I still have to watch using the
>> same HD-PVR. I'm I'm a poor, out-of-work guy who's looking for a low
>> cost way to be more effective than the free DRV software in the
>> DirecTV box.
>
>
> The Hauppauge HD-PVR has *nothing* to do with watching anything.  It
> is just a capture device.  It takes the component video, muxes it with
> the audio and produces H.264 which is fed to the mythbackend computer.
>  All myth does is take that H.264 stream, index it (to make seeking
> faster) and write it out to the hard drive.  If you want the
> commercials flagged, mythbackend will happily decode the H.264 video
> and try to detect where the commericals begin and end.

So it's my understanding that if the channels are encrypted that the HD-PVR
really doesn't do what you suggest above. I must be misinformed. Are you
saying that the HD-PVR removes all forms of copy protection from encrypted
programs? Or are you suggestion that an STB cannot place any
encryption/copy protection on a composite output and that's why it works?

Anyway, the HD-PVR isn't a solution for me. It's too expensive and I'm not
going to spend my money that way and be left to deal with all the problems
of running all that hardware. I'm sure it's a great product, as is the HDHR,
it's just not for me at this time. But I am certainly NOT trying to impugn the
device. However at $204/channel at NewEgg it's certainly not cheap.

My thought here, only for the sake of discussion, is to simply
consider how do use
Myth in a somewhat less stand-alone, more integrated way with other devices.
It's possibly just me but I see some value in a very small box, like the Roku
player, that runs Myth and controls many DVR devices around the house. It
doesn't solve all the problems, but it would give me one place I could program
them and could be done by a very low-power inexpensive machine running Linux.

Just a thought.

- Mark