[mythtv-users] Thinking of adding DirecTV, have questions

[David Asher]

On Jul 21, 2011, at 4:49 PM, Andrew Theurer wrote:

> I currently have 2 HD-HR's for local channels, but I would like to
> have a little more content.  I think DirecTV would be my first choice.
> I would want at least 2 HD tuners.  Is there anything I should watch
> out for?  I assume I need 2 HD-PVR's.  It looks like I might need a
> couple coax to toslink audio adapters, depending on the STB's I get
> from DirecTV.  I would like to use http to change channels on the
> STB's.  Is there something I am missing?  Any issue with using 2
> HD-PVRs to a single back-end?  Any issues to watch out for with USB?
> How is the quality of 1080i recordings?

I had the same plan, but I decided to ease into it by only going with one HD-PVR to start.

What I found was that I really didn't need two tuners because of two things:

1. We watch nearly nothing live and very little even the same night it was recorded.

2. Most of the cable channels reshow everything several times during the week.

So what happened was I don't actually get all the shows we watch on their first showing, but with only 1 HD-PVR I've never had a problem where we couldn't get every show we wanted reasonably close to its original airing.  Usually within less than 24 hours.

So I can't answer your question about multiple HD-PVRs, except to say you might want to consider trying just one HD-PVR since they are pretty expensive.

David.