MythTV Setup time!

[Dan Ritter]

On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 03:48:23AM -0700, Kristian Erik Hermansen wrote:
> I guess I just presumed my cable company (Cox) would carry an
> unencrypted signal when I purchase TV from them.  Am I naive?  Let me
> know.  And if so, will the firewire be necessary?  Yes, I noticed that
> there is no 1394 on that mobo now that you mentioned it, so thanks!

Cablecos traditionally sent unencrypted analog standard-def NTSC
signals for non-premium channels. Cox might do that.

But lots of cablecos are eliminating analog transmission
altogether, requiring an STB for every television. The
exceptions:

- devices using CableCards can be their own STB. That basically
  means a closed-source implementation with no capturable
  digital output -- TiVo.

- analog capture from the component outputs of an STB --
  Hauppauge's HD-PVR and a soon-to-be-released similar box.

- capturing whatever unencrypted digital signals are sent -- the
  FCC requires these to be, at a minimum, the same channels that
  you would get over-the-air. A few cablecos do much better than
  that. I don't know if Cox is one of them. All the HD QAM
  tuners do this, including HDHR.

- OTA. Depends on your antenna and geography; HDHR can do this
  as well.

- Extremely rare, possibly nonexistent in the US: video-over-IP
  streams from your cableco. MythTV can pull these directly or
  with a simple script.

-dsr-
  
-- 
http://tao.merseine.nu/~dsr/eula.html is hereby incorporated by reference.

You can't defend freedom by getting rid of it.