Hello. This is my first post. I'm posting it in the Off Topic section because it's not specific to KnoppMyth or MythTV. It's more of hardware signal question.

I'm planning to build a MythTV box soon. I'm very comfortable with Linux as I have been using it for many years so I don't think I'll have any problem setting up the box and maintaining it. (I understand I will probably run into myriad of issues, but I'm confident that I can overcome any Linux issues.)

My main areas of confusion are about the cable signal coming into the computer, and how to control the box with a remote control.

I currently have a cable box from my local cable television provider. (I live in the United States. Central Florida to be exact.)

The coax goes from the wall to the cable box, and then I connect the cable box to my TV. It's my understanding that I have to have that cable box in order to receive all the channels. In my bedroom, I have an extra TV that I rarely watch. Naturally, I do not want to pay the extra money for an extra cable box to sit on a TV that I rarely watch, so in my bedroom, I just run the coax from the wall of the bedroom straight into the TV. So in my bedroom, I only get about half the channels.

So my question in that regard is - will the MythTV box replace my cable box completely? Or will I still be required to have the cable box so I get all the extra channels? That brings me to my next question - how to control MythTV with a remote.

If I have to have the cable box to get those extra channels, how do I control everything? Obviously I just want one remote. I don't want to have to bring up the channel on the cable box with one remote, and then control MythTV with another remote.

Those are really the only questions I have. I am ready to get started on this ... pretty much now. I have an extra computer that should be more than adequate for MythTV. Though I would like a recommendation for a TV tuner card. I already have generic one, but I plan on buying a better one.

In reading these forums, Hauppage seems to be the general recommendation for MythTV as far as brand goes. But I have seen so many different models recommended that I am not sure which one is right for me. Based on what I have said thus far, if someone can recommend something, I would appreciate it.

Price isn't that big of a concern as I know all the cards are under $200. So I want the best. Preferably dual tuner so I don't have to buy two separate cards. Though I want the best picture quality, even if that means buying two individual cards.

I do not particularlly care to spend a bunch of extra money if it is totally unecessary. If there is some $80 card that will do absolutely everything I want, I am more than happy to save the money.

At this point, HDTV is not important to me because I don't have a high def television and do not plan to buy one any time soon.

Blixel,

From what you hve explained to get all the channels you will need to use your cable box and plug the video output directly into the KnoppMyth box. If you only wanted the channels that are unencrypted (the ones you can get on your other TV in the bedroom) you could plug the cable directly from the wall into your tuner card. If using the former method you don't need a tuner card, just a capture card to receive the input from the cable box.

To control the cable box, you may have a couple of options. Some provide a data port such as serial or firewire, but if neither of these are present you will be looking for the ir blaster solution.

For a dual tuner solution, from what I have read the Hauppauge PVR500 is a good option, although I do not have any personal experience with this.

Enjoy.

_________________
Girkers

Ah - I see. It would have been nice to get rid of the cable box, but I'm not willing to give up the extra channels as they are really all I ever watch.

Any recommendations for a capture card?



The cable box doesn't have a serial or firewire port, but it does have an IR port on the back. It appears to be a 1/8th inch jack. (Like a headphone jack. I plugged in a pair of headphones to the port and it's a perfect fit.)

Does that mean I can run a cable between the IR port on the back of the cable box and some kind of port on the computer? Which brings up another point - I assume I'll have to buy a stand alone remote control system for the Linux box since I won't have a TV tuner capture card (which is usually where the remote comes from.) Do you have any knowledge or experience with buying stand alone remotes?

Someone just did a nice write up on using the IR blaster that comes with the PVR-150 (non-MCE). It's a nice solution since you get capture, encoding, remote control of the PVR, and control of the cable box by the PVR all for one price. The down side is having to install bleeding edge drivers for the card but that's hard to avoid these days.