Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
Hi Michael - No worries - I get the box on Friday and will document everything I do tot get it up and running! On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 18:59:50 -0700, Mr. Myth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Richard Sears wrote: Brad, Thanks for all the great advice. I talked to my next dorr neighbor who also has Cox digital service with HD and they gave him a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD which includes USB and two firewire ports. Hopefully this will be the same unit I get and the firewire will work for this. Then I can send the PVR-250 as well as the PCHDTC cards back or sell them. Did you get your cox service yet? I am interested in going the firewire route with cox but I am not sure what to ask for. Do I just need digital cable with firewire or do I need cox HD and ask for firewire? Any help you can give would be great. Michael -- ** Richard J. Sears Vice President American Internet Services [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.adnc.com 858.576.4272 - Phone 858.427.2401 - Fax INOC-DBA - 6130 I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things . . Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like you do when nobody's watching. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
On Mon, Mar 28, 2005 at 12:54:17PM -0800, Richard Sears wrote: Brad, Thanks for all the great advice. I talked to my next dorr neighbor who also has Cox digital service with HD and they gave him a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD which includes USB and two firewire ports. Hopefully this will be the same unit I get and the firewire will work for this. Then I can send the PVR-250 as well as the PCHDTC cards back or sell them. :-) Many people are reporting success with firewire input, and it is obviously the way to go if you can get it to work. It is, however, a brand new feature in Myth so expect some learning curve.Some of the boxes reportedly let you change channels over the firewire, which is ideal. For some, you reportedly must use an IR blaster. You may want to keep one of the cards, since you might want to record more than one show at a time. Or get multiple cable boxes I guess. My local cable company does not provide some of the OTA stations in high-def yet (the UPN and WB). I don't know why, as they are legally supposed to. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
On Sun, Mar 27, 2005 at 11:59:23AM -0800, Richard Sears wrote: Hi Brad, Actually the Dual MP system I had laying around doing nothing, so I am building it to be a dedicated backend system. I have 4 300GB Raptor drives on an LSI SATA RAID controller on the system, and the plan is to have two or three front end systems all talking to the backend system. So the Dual system will be up in my office, so noise is not a factor. Then it's double overkill, because if all you want is a backend, and in particular if you are going to use pchdtv and wintv-pvr cards, you could probably run your backend on a 600mhz celeron.Maybe even a fair bit less than that, for just recording. (Transcoding and commercial elmination would be anoother story.) Recording from these cards takes effectively no CPU. You will use some CPU running linux itself and a few other things, but that's about it. For commercial skip/transcode, of course the more CPU the faster these take place. But they are generally no rush unless you want to watch shows with commercial skip right after they air. I got the pvr-350 and the PCHDTC thinking that I needed them, but it sounds like I can use the firewire for everything that I need. This also takes no CPU. However, it's a brand new feature, and in theory could go away for HD in the future. When using the firewire, I am assuming that I would need a separate 'digital' box and separate firewire input for each system that wanted to watch 'live' tv. Is that correct..? In theory you can put multiple items on the firewire bus, no? Firewire runs 400 megabits. Digital TV runs no more than about 18 megabits per HD channel. You won't run out on a single firewire controller. On Friday I get the cable system installed. I already questioned them about the digital box, and they would not give me much information on it, who made it or anything. Do you think I should call and make sure they are brining the right unit out..? Check the many past threads on this mailing list about getting cable companies to give you a firewire box the way they are required to. When using firewire, does audio come over it as well or do I need a separate card for audio. It's digital tv, which is always audio and video together as far as I know. I have an Audigy 2 sound card in my system now and my Gentoo install sees the card and the firewire port no problem, so I am very excited to give this a try. Your backend in theory doesn't need a sound card, or even a video card unless the bios demands it for booting. Take your dual athlon out, it is probably just sucking electricity, and put in something like the cheapest Sempron or Celeron you can get, and you'll still be able to get decent commercial scan on that. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
Brad, Thanks for all the great advice. I talked to my next dorr neighbor who also has Cox digital service with HD and they gave him a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD which includes USB and two firewire ports. Hopefully this will be the same unit I get and the firewire will work for this. Then I can send the PVR-250 as well as the PCHDTC cards back or sell them. :-) On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 01:04:29 -0800, Brad Templeton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sun, Mar 27, 2005 at 11:59:23AM -0800, Richard Sears wrote: Hi Brad, Actually the Dual MP system I had laying around doing nothing, so I am building it to be a dedicated backend system. I have 4 300GB Raptor drives on an LSI SATA RAID controller on the system, and the plan is to have two or three front end systems all talking to the backend system. So the Dual system will be up in my office, so noise is not a factor. Then it's double overkill, because if all you want is a backend, and in particular if you are going to use pchdtv and wintv-pvr cards, you could probably run your backend on a 600mhz celeron.Maybe even a fair bit less than that, for just recording. (Transcoding and commercial elmination would be anoother story.) Recording from these cards takes effectively no CPU. You will use some CPU running linux itself and a few other things, but that's about it. For commercial skip/transcode, of course the more CPU the faster these take place. But they are generally no rush unless you want to watch shows with commercial skip right after they air. I got the pvr-350 and the PCHDTC thinking that I needed them, but it sounds like I can use the firewire for everything that I need. This also takes no CPU. However, it's a brand new feature, and in theory could go away for HD in the future. When using the firewire, I am assuming that I would need a separate 'digital' box and separate firewire input for each system that wanted to watch 'live' tv. Is that correct..? In theory you can put multiple items on the firewire bus, no? Firewire runs 400 megabits. Digital TV runs no more than about 18 megabits per HD channel. You won't run out on a single firewire controller. On Friday I get the cable system installed. I already questioned them about the digital box, and they would not give me much information on it, who made it or anything. Do you think I should call and make sure they are brining the right unit out..? Check the many past threads on this mailing list about getting cable companies to give you a firewire box the way they are required to. When using firewire, does audio come over it as well or do I need a separate card for audio. It's digital tv, which is always audio and video together as far as I know. I have an Audigy 2 sound card in my system now and my Gentoo install sees the card and the firewire port no problem, so I am very excited to give this a try. Your backend in theory doesn't need a sound card, or even a video card unless the bios demands it for booting. Take your dual athlon out, it is probably just sucking electricity, and put in something like the cheapest Sempron or Celeron you can get, and you'll still be able to get decent commercial scan on that. -- ** Richard J. Sears Vice President American Internet Services [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.adnc.com 858.576.4272 - Phone 858.427.2401 - Fax INOC-DBA - 6130 I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things . . Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like you do when nobody's watching. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
Richard Sears wrote: Hey Everyone - So I broke down and ordered cable from my local cable company (Cox) here in S. CA. Much to my surprise did I learn that they no longer allow (or support/send/whatever) any of the subscription channels (HBO, Showtime, etc) over their analog cable system. In order to get this (and HDTV) service, I have to subscribe to their digital cable service, which of course comes with their own box which you have to use to watch it. Well, for $1 for 6 months of service I added the premium channels and HDTV to my the analog service I ordered. According to the service rep, I will have both the digital service (for channels over 99) and the digital service. So here I am in the middle of my 1.2TB, Dual Athlon MythTV monster server build thinking its going to be a bummer to have to get just regular cable and nothing else on my mythtv system. I can add an off-the-air HDTV antenna as I have ordered the PCHDTV card and a PVR-350 (all of the 250's were out of stock) but I would reall like everything. I figured if anyone had figured this out, someone here has done it. So, my question - Is there some way to hook up the Cox digital box to the MythTV backend so that I can use the Myth system to control the digital box and output it to Myth so it can be recorded, played, etc..? Or am I stuck with simple analog cable with my myth system..? Is there a 'digital cable' tuner card made by anyone, or is it specific to each cable company..? I know my TV has an input for digital cable rf, but not sure who it works with (if anyone). It also has an input for an HDTV card from the cable company. Anyway - if anyone has some ideas, I am all ears !! Thanks !! Youll need an IR Blaster. Hook that up to the PC and let it control the cbale box. Tom ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
On Sun, Mar 27, 2005 at 05:44:59AM -0500, Tom E. Craddock Jr. wrote: So here I am in the middle of my 1.2TB, Dual Athlon MythTV monster server build thinking its going to be a bummer to have to get just regular cable and nothing else on my mythtv system. Dual Athlon? That seems like a whole lot of overkill (and a lot of heat and fan noise.) You might want to scale it back. I can add an off-the-air HDTV antenna as I have ordered the PCHDTV card and a PVR-350 (all of the 250's were out of stock) but I would reall like everything. You couldn't find a 150 or 250 anywhere, not even ebay? Since you plan HD, you won't be using the 350's TV out in all probability, so it's just wasted. If there were a way to tell myth, use the 350 for analog recordings and the video card for digital, you could switch inputs on your TV but you would have to code that. I figured if anyone had figured this out, someone here has done it. So, my question - Is there some way to hook up the Cox digital box to the MythTV backend so that I can use the Myth system to control the digital box and output it to Myth so it can be recorded, played, etc..? Or am I stuck with simple analog cable with my myth system..? Is there a 'digital cable' tuner card made by anyone, or is it specific to each cable company..? I know my TV has an input for digital cable rf, but not sure who it works with (if anyone). It also has an input for an HDTV card from the cable company. Your pc-HDTV-3000 can tune digital cable when it's unencrypted. Not HBO, but many of your local HD channels will be tunable that way, as well as sometimes some others. That's the law. The law also lets you demand a digital cable box with ieee1394 jacks on it (known as firewire or dtvlink). Be sure to insist on that. Then you can get digital out of that box. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
Hi Brad, Actually the Dual MP system I had laying around doing nothing, so I am building it to be a dedicated backend system. I have 4 300GB Raptor drives on an LSI SATA RAID controller on the system, and the plan is to have two or three front end systems all talking to the backend system. So the Dual system will be up in my office, so noise is not a factor. I got the pvr-350 and the PCHDTC thinking that I needed them, but it sounds like I can use the firewire for everything that I need. When using the firewire, I am assuming that I would need a separate 'digital' box and separate firewire input for each system that wanted to watch 'live' tv. Is that correct..? On Friday I get the cable system installed. I already questioned them about the digital box, and they would not give me much information on it, who made it or anything. Do you think I should call and make sure they are brining the right unit out..? When using firewire, does audio come over it as well or do I need a separate card for audio. I have an Audigy 2 sound card in my system now and my Gentoo install sees the card and the firewire port no problem, so I am very excited to give this a try. I have everything emerged, now I have to work on getting it (mysql, etc) all set up and running!! On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 11:29:23 -0800, Brad Templeton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sun, Mar 27, 2005 at 05:44:59AM -0500, Tom E. Craddock Jr. wrote: So here I am in the middle of my 1.2TB, Dual Athlon MythTV monster server build thinking its going to be a bummer to have to get just regular cable and nothing else on my mythtv system. Dual Athlon? That seems like a whole lot of overkill (and a lot of heat and fan noise.) You might want to scale it back. I can add an off-the-air HDTV antenna as I have ordered the PCHDTV card and a PVR-350 (all of the 250's were out of stock) but I would reall like everything. You couldn't find a 150 or 250 anywhere, not even ebay? Since you plan HD, you won't be using the 350's TV out in all probability, so it's just wasted. If there were a way to tell myth, use the 350 for analog recordings and the video card for digital, you could switch inputs on your TV but you would have to code that. I figured if anyone had figured this out, someone here has done it. So, my question - Is there some way to hook up the Cox digital box to the MythTV backend so that I can use the Myth system to control the digital box and output it to Myth so it can be recorded, played, etc..? Or am I stuck with simple analog cable with my myth system..? Is there a 'digital cable' tuner card made by anyone, or is it specific to each cable company..? I know my TV has an input for digital cable rf, but not sure who it works with (if anyone). It also has an input for an HDTV card from the cable company. Your pc-HDTV-3000 can tune digital cable when it's unencrypted. Not HBO, but many of your local HD channels will be tunable that way, as well as sometimes some others. That's the law. The law also lets you demand a digital cable box with ieee1394 jacks on it (known as firewire or dtvlink). Be sure to insist on that. Then you can get digital out of that box. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users -- ** Richard J. Sears Vice President American Internet Services [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.adnc.com 858.576.4272 - Phone 858.427.2401 - Fax INOC-DBA - 6130 I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things . . Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like you do when nobody's watching. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
RE: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
In my area Cox has the Motorola cable box that has firewire output that works very, very well with mythtv, including the ability to change the channel through the firewire cable. At the moment nothing is encrypted so it works brilliantly, including with HBO, Showtime, and INHD1 2. I am dreading the day they encrypt the channels over firewire because right now it's much more stable than either my 2k or 3k pchdtv card, with dvb or regular drivers. Firewire = 2 thumbs up, minus a small issue with the unit powering off randomly every few weeks or so. Funny how mythtv is more stable and reliable recording over firewire than the professional hdtv pvr cox supplies. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Sears Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2005 7:05 PM To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ? Hey Everyone - So I broke down and ordered cable from my local cable company (Cox) here in S. CA. Much to my surprise did I learn that they no longer allow (or support/send/whatever) any of the subscription channels (HBO, Showtime, etc) over their analog cable system. In order to get this (and HDTV) service, I have to subscribe to their digital cable service, which of course comes with their own box which you have to use to watch it. Well, for $1 for 6 months of service I added the premium channels and HDTV to my the analog service I ordered. According to the service rep, I will have both the digital service (for channels over 99) and the digital service. So here I am in the middle of my 1.2TB, Dual Athlon MythTV monster server build thinking its going to be a bummer to have to get just regular cable and nothing else on my mythtv system. I can add an off-the-air HDTV antenna as I have ordered the PCHDTV card and a PVR-350 (all of the 250's were out of stock) but I would reall like everything. I figured if anyone had figured this out, someone here has done it. So, my question - Is there some way to hook up the Cox digital box to the MythTV backend so that I can use the Myth system to control the digital box and output it to Myth so it can be recorded, played, etc..? Or am I stuck with simple analog cable with my myth system..? Is there a 'digital cable' tuner card made by anyone, or is it specific to each cable company..? I know my TV has an input for digital cable rf, but not sure who it works with (if anyone). It also has an input for an HDTV card from the cable company. Anyway - if anyone has some ideas, I am all ears !! Thanks !! -- ** Richard J. Sears Vice President American Internet Services [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.adnc.com 858.576.4272 - Phone 858.427.2401 - Fax INOC-DBA - 6130 I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things . . Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like you do when nobody's watching. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
I've read that you can rig up one of those infared remote things from the computer to the digital box to control the channels. My PVR250 came with one of those cables with an ir blaster to do this...you might do some searching for that...and I'm sure people on the list do this with both digital cable and satellite. I've also heard some digital boxes can be controlled by a serial cable and maybe even firewire too... Do a little google searching on those terms...should give you a start.. HTH, K On Mar 26, 2005, at 9:05 PM, Richard Sears wrote: So, my question - Is there some way to hook up the Cox digital box to the MythTV backend so that I can use the Myth system to control the digital box and output it to Myth so it can be recorded, played, etc..? Or am I stuck with simple analog cable with my myth system..? ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ?
Hey Jack - Interesting. They would not tell me the brand or type of box they will be delivering until the day they arrive, so I could not really try and figure much out. I plan on putting in a Sound Blaster Audigy2 I have laying around into the system, and that has firewire builtin to it, so maybe I will get as lucky!! Out of curiosity, what changes did you have to make to Myth to get it to handle everything over the firewire..? What type of firewire card are you running..? Thanks On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 19:12:06 -0800, Jack R. Hyde [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In my area Cox has the Motorola cable box that has firewire output that works very, very well with mythtv, including the ability to change the channel through the firewire cable. At the moment nothing is encrypted so it works brilliantly, including with HBO, Showtime, and INHD1 2. I am dreading the day they encrypt the channels over firewire because right now it's much more stable than either my 2k or 3k pchdtv card, with dvb or regular drivers. Firewire = 2 thumbs up, minus a small issue with the unit powering off randomly every few weeks or so. Funny how mythtv is more stable and reliable recording over firewire than the professional hdtv pvr cox supplies. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Sears Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2005 7:05 PM To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: [mythtv-users] MythTV w/Digital Cox Service ? Hey Everyone - So I broke down and ordered cable from my local cable company (Cox) here in S. CA. Much to my surprise did I learn that they no longer allow (or support/send/whatever) any of the subscription channels (HBO, Showtime, etc) over their analog cable system. In order to get this (and HDTV) service, I have to subscribe to their digital cable service, which of course comes with their own box which you have to use to watch it. Well, for $1 for 6 months of service I added the premium channels and HDTV to my the analog service I ordered. According to the service rep, I will have both the digital service (for channels over 99) and the digital service. So here I am in the middle of my 1.2TB, Dual Athlon MythTV monster server build thinking its going to be a bummer to have to get just regular cable and nothing else on my mythtv system. I can add an off-the-air HDTV antenna as I have ordered the PCHDTV card and a PVR-350 (all of the 250's were out of stock) but I would reall like everything. I figured if anyone had figured this out, someone here has done it. So, my question - Is there some way to hook up the Cox digital box to the MythTV backend so that I can use the Myth system to control the digital box and output it to Myth so it can be recorded, played, etc..? Or am I stuck with simple analog cable with my myth system..? Is there a 'digital cable' tuner card made by anyone, or is it specific to each cable company..? I know my TV has an input for digital cable rf, but not sure who it works with (if anyone). It also has an input for an HDTV card from the cable company. Anyway - if anyone has some ideas, I am all ears !! Thanks !! -- ** Richard J. Sears Vice President American Internet Services [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.adnc.com 858.576.4272 - Phone 858.427.2401 - Fax INOC-DBA - 6130 I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things . . Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like you do when nobody's watching. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users -- ** Richard J. Sears Vice President American Internet Services [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.adnc.com 858.576.4272 - Phone 858.427.2401 - Fax INOC-DBA - 6130 I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things . . Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like you do when nobody's watching. ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
