[Tfug] MythTV and Cox/DirecTV

[John Gruenenfelder]

On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 08:50:39PM -0700, Tom Rini wrote:
>Hey guys.  I'm once again thinking about a MythTV setup and wondering
>what my options are in town, wrt Cox Digital Cable (specifically the
>digital cable package stuff like BBC America, G4, etc) or DirecTV.
>After doing some research it seems like if the provider is "nice" you
>can get a digital signal directly in, but if they aren't you have to use
>an IR blaster and take the analog signal out of the cable box and bring
>that into the capture card.
>
>So, does anyone know what's possible with Cox (Comcast isn't an option
>in this part of town) or DirecTV and digital channels?  I'm kind of
>hoping to get rid of the cable-co DVR.  Thanks!

I had to deal with this in September when I moved back to Tucson.  At first I
figured I would stick with Cox digital cable.  My thinking was the following:

* Cox digital should have a "digital" signal.
* A cable box with firewire *should* let me access the digital signal, even if
  it is only SD.
* Didn't the FCC pass some rule mandating this?

So I swapped my basic box for a fancy HD box (still only paying for SD,
though) that had a firewire port.  And I get... squat.

Or, almost squat.  The only digital signals I could get from the firewire port
were the HD feeds for the local stations, nothing else.  Everything else still
came out of the analog plug.  I called to complain, citing two year old FCC
rules, but they just kept saying that they were working on it.  No answer for
why it was taking so damn long.

Now, if I had been able to get *most* channels via firewire, say everything
but premium, I could have lived with that.  Configured Myth to grab different
channels from different inputs.  But, with only local feeds it wasn't worth it
at all.  Also, as you mentioned, I would have needed an IR blaster to control
the box.

So, I scrapped that idea and cancelled Cox.  Now I'm getting more channels
from DirecTV and paying less for them.  And I feel better inside not having to
deal with the cable company.

As for DirecTV and Myth, I used this setup before when I lived in Tucson and
it's essentially the same then as it is now.  The directv.pl script still
exists (look at the changelog at the top of the file - I added a bunch of
stuff in 02 or 03) and works fine.  The box I have now is much newer, but it
still allows serial access to control the box, so no IR blaster.  All you need
is a USB->serial adapter and, optionally, a serial extension cable if that's
too short.

This DirecTV box has no firewire port, however, and I haven't investigated if
it is possible to get the digital signals from the DTV stream.  Considering
how tightly DirecTV likes to control their signal, I wouldn't be optimistic.
And I don't know if the FCC rule applies to satellite providers.


-- 
--John Gruenenfelder    Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
Try Weasel Reader for PalmOS  --  http://weaselreader.org
"This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in the blood
of my enemies!"
        --Sam of Sam & Max