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

[Mark Knecht]

On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Travis Tabbal <travis at tabbal.net> wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 10:39 AM, Johnny Walker <johnnyjboss at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Not really - how are you going to watch them if the box is busy
>> recoding? How are you going to even know it's recording when you're
>> not using the mythfrontend interface? From the sound of this you will
>> only be able to watch if one of your 2 tuners is not recording, and
>> even then to do it you'll be creating on screen menu artifacts for
>> your other recording when you switch inputs.
>
>
> He's not using myth to record or display recordings. That's all handled by
> the STB's internal software. So Myth is only handling scheduling in this
> case. As Myth isn't recording, it doesn't matter that the menu and such will
> be displayed, the STB already handles that properly. It's an interesting
> idea, but it would drive me nuts not being able to play things back on Myth,
> only on the STB. So I would have to train people on 2 interfaces, and when
> to use which one. Argh. The aggravation alone is worth $200/tuner for HD-PVR
> boxes. If only we had sane rules on Cable/Sat to allow direct stream
> recording and playback using a card for decryption like the DVB users seem
> to.

Well, if you don't have $200*2 then it's sort of a moot point. I
simply cannot spend money on that. Not possible.

In my original through I'm not seeing it as a major aggravation
though. I spend 90% of my time at home on a computer and far less than
10% of my time in front of a TV watching video. Being able to program
any of my hardware DVRs from any PC in the house would be a real
positive for me. Additionally I get better scheduling and all the
great stuff that Myth does in this area.

We've used Myth for 4-5 years so there's no real training involved
here but I do see that others - new users especially - wouldn't feel
that way. To me this is similar to the apps that program your DVR from
your iPhone, etc.

To me the real frustration is not being able to stream the video I've
paid for and recorded to the PC or TV of my choice. If I give in and
keep a Windows box in my office then I can (using Direct-to-PC) so
that's manageable. It doesn't solve watching in the bedroom at night
(unless I pay for Mutli-room which I likely will) but on the other
hand I'm getting 2 recordings at a time on all the channels I pay for
which sounded pretty good to me. Maybe not to others though.

Anyway, it was just an idea I wanted to ask about.

Thanks,
Mark