I really want to move from the DishPVR 501 I have now to a MythTV based HTPC. I have been toying with MythTV on a Libranet install and KnoppMyth. No problems getting things up and running the forums here have been a great help. Here is what I want to do, and the questions:
I plan on picking up two PVR 250's. On will have S-Video sent to it from a Cable or Dish Receiver. Unfortunately neither receiver has serial interface so it looks like I am stuck with the IR blaster route. The other 250 card will be connected to analog cable for tuning with the card. This is what I just do not see real answers to. Setting the cards up seems basic enough, and I can follow directions for the IR, so that is no big deal. What is is how it works before I shell out cash for the HW.

What hoops are required to move between the two cards. For example, normal tv watching would be via the receiver->svideo->250 route. When on thing is recording there, I may want to watch/record something from the analog cable being tuned on the other 250 card, and visa versa. The problem is the wife. How seamless is this process? I would much rather have a serial connector, but none of the receivers I have available have serial interface. The reason for the primary tv watching being from the receiver, is that a couple of the channels we really like are only available on satellite or the digital cable. What is the basic process for moving between tuners. I am thinking it may even work to have a universal remote that could be programed to send different IR commands to the myth box for the two different 250 configs. Any ideas? My wife is nervous this will not work as well as the "dumb" recorder that the dish pvr is. I know the advantages of the basic hardware the providers provide, but I really want the flexibility of the mythtv setup.

Thanks...

My setup is kind of similar to what your talking about. I have 2 pvr-250's, each being fed by svideo from a DirecTV box. I am controlling them serially, but it could be done just as well via ir blaster.

One of the boxes is the "default" box and is the one used for recording or live tv if it is available. If it's busy recording, starting live tv will bring up the other box.

If I'm watching live tv on the default box and a scheduled recording comes up, it will want to kick me off live tv so it can record. I can exit live tv and come back in and watch on the secondary box.

You will only have one remote talking to myth, and one ir blaster to control your box (either sat or cable).

dave,
Thanks for the reply. I think that is a good part of the answer I have, but maybe you could elaborate slightly.
So, if card1 is busy recording then Myth automatically starts using a second card if one is available right? So how does it inform the user or does it that it is now going to use card2? When it switches which card it is using, does each card have it's own configurable response to ir input. I guess in your case it would. You have two serial ports one connecting to each sat receiver. So when the system moves from one to the other, the new channel controls now operate the newly selected device. So I can extrapolate that this would be similar with my configuration. I am not dead set on my local Adelpha cable company, nor completely with Dish anymore. My Adelpha has a Motorola HD receiver that I have (no HD for now though) but it does not have serial interface. I would almost be willing to switch providers to have the tighter integration that serial seems to offer over an IR blaster. (Faster response, exact channel control?)

Thanks for the input.

Yes, if card1 is recording and you try to watch live tv it automatically switches to card 2 for live tv.

If you are watching live tv on card 1 and myth want to record on card 1 it pops a dialog giving you some choices like "record and watch", "record and go back to the menu", "cancel recording" or some such like that.

There is a dialog in the setup for each card where you can enter the name of the script that myth should execute when changing a channel. Myth will supply the channel number as an argument to the script. I have two scripts, one changes channel on serial port 0 and the other changes on serial port 1. I imagine ir blaster would work the same way.