Digital tuner cards get you one of two things.
1. Over the air local broadcast TV ATSC
2. UNencrypted cable tv. (which is mostly rebroadcast of the over the air channels)

When your cable company goes digital only you will need their box to downconvert the HD content and convert the Standard Def so that your composite/s-video inputs on the PVR-350 can record them. You would no longer use the coax connector. The IR blaster changes the channel to the station you want to record. Composite and S-video only carries one feed at a time. So if you want to record two stations at a time you need two cable boxes and two capture cards.

To record HD from cable you may want to look into the Hauppauge HDPVR. You will still need the ir blaster but this device records from Component sources in HD. It hasn't been released yet(?) and there are no Linux drivers (yet).

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18249

Abigail: again, see my previous message. There is no such thing as a digital tuner card that works with MythTV in the way you're thinking of it (one that would substitute for a digital cable set-top box).

To add another wrinkle:

In addition to jorin and ceenvee703's points, your cable company is supposed to provide a firewire-enabled STB (settop box). I have not done so myself, but I believe you can record unencrypted content via firewire without any additional tuners whatsoever - The STB is your only tuner at that point, the stream is saved to disk from the firewire input. If I am off base here someone please chime in.

Any way you slice it, if you get your content from a cable provider (or dish for that matter) an STB will be required and you will need a way to change the channels on said STB. That's where the blaster comes in.

Thanks guys. I just assumed that a digital tuner card worked just like my PVR-350 analog cards. I actually thought it was a stupid question. Thanks for the answer.

So those myth users with digital setups... can I get a picture of some of them? In my mind I see wires all over and lots non-kid friendly stuff everywhere.

So I guess the real problem with the Feb 2009 switchover will be when things go fully digital and my PVR-350's can't encode any longer. They will (correct me if I'm wrong) however be able to decode anything saved. So I can still use them to pump video out to the tv.

Thanks!

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R6.04, dual core 3ghz, 3 gig memory, Zotac 8400 passive heat sink dvi/hdmi out video, 500 gig sata, dual tuner hdhomerun, streamzap remote

Abby

Hey I'm just full of questions tonight. Here's another.

How do I know if my tv's can even handle digital cable?

Thanks.

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R6.04, dual core 3ghz, 3 gig memory, Zotac 8400 passive heat sink dvi/hdmi out video, 500 gig sata, dual tuner hdhomerun, streamzap remote

Abby

The problem is how the cable company is going to send the signal down the wire. Right now you are recording an analog feed, completely unencrypted. If and when the time comes that your cable company turns off analog and goes digital they will most likely encrypt the signal as well as use another codec. So they may use MPEG2 or MPEG4(H264) to compress the file down as much as they think users will not notice. If it is encryted or flagged it is dead in the water. So the cable box can unencrypt the signal so you can watch it. If you have a device that can record the output that will be your opportunity. Any cable box will give you the ability to send the proper signal that your TV can handle. They want your business since broadcast TV is going away from SD.

Your tv and PVR-350 cannot handle digital cable. Their box can and will send the appropriate signal to your TV.

Some of the newer HD TVs can use cablecards but this depends on the cable company to make them available. Usually for a price.

So, ha, am I just bone headed and oblivious to this while everyone else is in the know? Shouldn't a standard be developed BEFORE turning off analog signalling?

I guess there's no real need to answer.

So I also assume that Hauppauge will be reaping some serious profits soon after Feb 2009 huh? Time to get some strategic equity positions. hmmm

Thanks.

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R6.04, dual core 3ghz, 3 gig memory, Zotac 8400 passive heat sink dvi/hdmi out video, 500 gig sata, dual tuner hdhomerun, streamzap remote

Abby

Hi,

Even I am getting confused, but that is easy to do for me.

I also have the 350 card as that is about the only way to play real tv with a 600mhz machine. I also have the HDHomeRun box which has dual ota digital tuners. I record fron the digital homerun on the 600mhz machine as there is no processing required, it is already digital.

To play back a hd recording I jump through hoops and turn it into an iso which reprocesses it to be a standard ntsc image. It does take a while but I end up with a file that I can play and it still looks very nice

I am afraid that I will have to use my 350 card for quite sometime in the future as I am too damn cheap to simply throw it away.

Mike

I'm in the same boat apparently. Cheap is my middle name. My friends call me Ms. Kastanza.

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R6.04, dual core 3ghz, 3 gig memory, Zotac 8400 passive heat sink dvi/hdmi out video, 500 gig sata, dual tuner hdhomerun, streamzap remote

Abby

If their HD PVR works as advertised then I would say they will be well placed in the market, yes

Hi,

Also the 350 and some 150 cards have an fm tuner in them, not sure of the 150 flavor however my 350 fm tuner works vey nicely! Big hit with the wife too. Some may not know that radio was around a long time before even b/w tv Who needs digital tv anyway.

Mike

whoa whoa whoa here. Does myth support the FM tuner? Or if not, how are you using it?

Thanks.

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R6.04, dual core 3ghz, 3 gig memory, Zotac 8400 passive heat sink dvi/hdmi out video, 500 gig sata, dual tuner hdhomerun, streamzap remote

Abby

Hi,
No, Myth does not suport the FM radio however it is very easy to hack into life, with menus added too. Want to try it, start a new thread.
Mike
Or use this:
http://knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... 12a4a5b1e9

I'm in the process of building an HTPC and when I called our cable company (Charter) to ask about the digital switchover they said they have no plans to switch to all digital in the forseeable future.

Today I just got my Charter Connect Newsletter and they had a link for info about the digital change over and they are again stating that the digital transition will have no immediate effect on their subscribers. In fact they seem to be using their continuance of analog as a marketing tool (even mentioning that in most cases you don't need a set top converter).

http://connect.charter.com/cas/Portal/c ... ition.aspx

TTYL,

Steve

I just heard that comcast is going digital immediately in February. So I may not have the same luck as you.

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R6.04, dual core 3ghz, 3 gig memory, Zotac 8400 passive heat sink dvi/hdmi out video, 500 gig sata, dual tuner hdhomerun, streamzap remote

Abby