[mythtv-users] Can I just pass the TV signal through?

[Raymond Wagner]

On Sat, Apr 9, 2011 at 2:08 PM, Dave M G <martin at autotelic.com> wrote:
> There are digital TV tuner cards for putting in a computer available,
> but support for Linux is, as you can probably imagine, quite lacking. I
> found one blog post (in Japanese: http://ky-hive.jp/blog/?p=244 ) where
> a guy had set it up, but it looked pretty tricky and required some funky
> hardware.

That page describes the use of a digital tuner and external smart card 
reader.  MythTV only supports recording of encrypted content from 
devices with a built in CAM, which is why he had to route the video 
through VLC and the IPTV capture interface in MythTV.  Since the 
software that allows the use of card readers also allows more illegal 
activities, discussion of such software is not permitted in this mailing 
list, even had you wanted to try it.

> It looks like the easiest thing for me to do is buy a digital tuner with
> built in hard drive for storing shows. (Japanese TV can be really,
> really stupid most of the time, so the ability to schedule and record
> shows is critical.)

As mentioned, MythTV is not really designed for manual access of other 
devices.  While you could pick up a cheap framegrabber, and add a menu 
entry for TVTime, you would need a second remote to control the tuner 
box, and as such it would have to be in the same room as your frontend, 
in line of sight.  But you're close...

Instead of buying an external DVR, just get a cheaper digital tuner 
box.  Use an IR blaster, or serial, or network, or an other scriptable 
control method to allow your backend to change the channels.  Then just 
use an analog capture device to record the output of the tuner box.  
IVTV cards like the old PVR-150 are preferred for standard definition, 
while an HDPVR will be capable of capturing component HD up to 1080i.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Recording_Digital_Cable#Option_3:_Analog_Output_Recording
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/LIRC#IR_Transmission_.28from_MythTV.29