Hey guys/gals --

I have been very interested in running a mythTV system since first hearing about it. But, I got rather hooked on my Tivo system and never really looked to far into it. Not to mention, my girlfriend thought I already had too many computers in the house - how would I convince her to let me have more? Well guess what, she is gone now, and so is the Tivo. So it is time to explore mythTV (yay)!

I will be moving in 1 weeks time and just purchased my first HDTV (Sony 40 inch LCD 1080p). I can't wait to hook it up and view HD broadcasts in all its glory. I had a few questions about hardware (help making up my mind) and some of the other things I have read over the past 2 weeks.

I want to be able to record 2 shows at a time (my tivo spoiled me) which will require multiple tuners. I will be getting Comcast Digital Cable with HD when I move. As I would like to record 2 shows at a time, and watch a Live TV broadcast - I would need 3 tuner cards. So I was wondering, do I get 2 pvr-250's and 1 pchdtv-5500? Or 2x pchdtv-5500 and 1x pvr-250? I know that HD broadcasts are still spotty - and therefore was the reason for thinking about 1 pchdtv for the time being. But, I just read somewhere - someone mentioned that the pvr-250 will not record the digital cable(?), or was that comment in regards to the hd broadcasts? I know the pvr will not record the hd broadcasts - hence the reason for the pchdtv card. But it should still be able to record the regular digital non-pay, non-HD cable channels - correct? Or am I mistaken? Do I need the pchdtv to record the digital cable (non-pay, non-HD) broadcasts? I assumed I would most likely only be recording 1 HD broadcast at a time. So that was why I was thinking about the dual SD cards and the 1 HD card. But I am wondering if I have this backwards? Also - I read that the pchdtv-5500's have poor NTSC qualtiy - so that was the reason for recording the NTSC broadcasts (digital cable) with the pvr-250's. Again, is this wrong?

Also - I was reading a lot about LIRC and IR-blasters. I assume that is needed for this application, correct? Would I need only 1 (to control the comcast STB) - or multiple because of the multiple tuner cards? I am a bit confused on how those work - I just know that I will need 1 and I have found a lot of the 'google' information doesn't explain this quite clearly. If anyone has a quick simple explanation, I am all 'eyes'.

Thanks a lot for your help guys. Any additional information would be greatly appreciated. I can't wait to get all of this put together get going with it!

Why not just watch live TV on the TV? You spent all that money on a TV with a QAM/ATSC tuner, so why not use it?

That's what I do. My remote has a "watch TV" button, which switches away from Myth and just uses the stand-alone tuner (I had a stand-alone HDTV tuner before I built the Myth box). That's easy for my parents to figure out when they're visiting, etc..
I've just got two HDTV tuners in the Myth Box, and watch only recorded stuff there.
I'm thinking of adding another HD tuner. I'd never consider adding an SD tuner. I've got an old TiVo for that, if I want.

[quote="thornsoft"][quote]record 2 shows at a time, and watch a Live TV broadcast - I would need 3 tuner cards[/quote]
Why not just watch live TV on the TV? You spent all that money on a TV with a QAM/ATSC tuner, so why not use it?

[/quote]

That is the type of stuff I completely overlooked. You are correct. I should take the direct feed to the TV because of the tuner and I should get all channels without any issue. Then set up myth just to record? And with that TV I can swap the "input" sources and watch the recorded shows when I want? Do you still need the IR Blaster (this is the most confusing thing to me, IR blaster?) to do all of this? Also - do you record HD only then? I guess I am confused about what type of content the hd tuners can record or receive. There is only a limited amount of HD channels out there, as well as shows correct? So aren't you only limited to that? If you want a non HD program, you (I) would still need an SD tuner, correct?

Sweet.

Do you use the pchdtv cards for all channels then? I am still sort of lost here with what I can and can not tune with digital cable and the pchdtv/pvr cards. Taking a standard feel directly into the TV is simple, and watching live TV from that feed is the best way for me to go about this. But I am still sort of lost on the recording part. I would like to still record shows like HBO ( I know the hd feed is probably out of the picture) and was wondering if I get the standard feed with the pvr-250 - or set the pchdtv to QAM and record it that way? Still trying to figure out if I need dual pvr-250's - or dual pchdtv-5500?

With the 5500 card, you should be able to tune SD channels as well, but I'm not sure. I've got the 3000 and can't. But it may depend on having 0.20 of Myth as well.
I'm DTV only, as everything available OTA here is available as DTV (mostly HD, with some SD subchannels).

You would not need an IR blaster, as Myth would not know about or care about the tuner in the TV. You'd just switch inputs, and "watch live TV" on it. Get a nice remote like the Harmony 880 (I saw it for $129 on techbargains.com today) to do the switching for you.