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What can I expect with Myth & DirecTV DVRs?
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Author:  mohoelx [ Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:10 am ]
Post subject:  What can I expect with Myth & DirecTV DVRs?
I've been 'tinkering' with Myth in various forms, and love the Knoppmyth delivery. However, what I have never been able to get my head around is this; how useful will Myth be if my source is DirecTV Tivo?

I have two Series 2 DTivo's, so both have dual tuners. In order to use all of those in Myth, would I need four tuners (assuming I do not want any less simultaneous recording available)?

I'm pretty sure the answer to that is 'yes'. Ok, it's just money. But the technical issues/questions I can't seem to understand is this;

1) How do I control two physical DTivo's? Does that take two IR blasters? And is that configurable in a single back-end?

2) Do my DTivo's wind up being essentially just 'dumb' DirecTV receivers? If I record to the DTivo drive, it would only be viewable on the local TV attached to the particular DTivo, whereas if I record on Myth, I can watch anywhere I plant a front-end or use Mythstream, right? If this is the case, is there any benefit to having dual-tuner DTivos vs just stacking up two of the 'regular' receivers (which are single-feed)?

2-a) And if I went with stacking two 'regular' receivers, would this introduce any new issues with the IR Blaster?

3) Is there any way to use the program guide data I already get from DTivo in Myth? (I suspect "no".)

As much as I feel like I'm "in bed with the devil" with DirecTV, my one and only cable provider option is Comcast, and I'm not sure how it would be different. Is there something different in Cable or is it one Video Capture card per STB there also?

Thanks -
MoHoelX
Author:  mihanson [ Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What can I expect with Myth & DirecTV DVRs?
mohoelx wrote:
how useful will Myth be if my source is DirecTV Tivo?


As long as MythTV is controlling the box and you're not using the Tivo functions, I don't see how it's any different than any other STB.

mohoelx wrote:
I have two Series 2 DTivo's, so both have dual tuners. In order to use all of those in Myth, would I need four tuners (assuming I do not want any less simultaneous recording available)?


As long as each tuner in each DTivo has it's own output, yes, you'll need 4 capture cards. If you have the right combination of outputs on each box, you can use two PVR-500's If your DTivos only have one output for both tuners, then you'll only be able to use one tuner on each DTivo box.

mohoelx wrote:
1) How do I control two physical DTivo's? Does that take two IR blasters? And is that configurable in a single back-end?


Yes, each DTivo box will need an IR blaster. With 2 STB's it seems you'd be a good canidate for the double head ir blaster from http://www.irblaster.info. You'll have to make sure each DTivo speaks a different set of IR code. You'll then need to configure a second set of codes in your lircd.conf. Yes, you can do this with one backend.

mohoelx wrote:
2) Do my DTivo's wind up being essentially just 'dumb' DirecTV receivers? If I record to the DTivo drive, it would only be viewable on the local TV attached to the particular DTivo, whereas if I record on Myth, I can watch anywhere I plant a front-end or use Mythstream, right? If this is the case, is there any benefit to having dual-tuner DTivos vs just stacking up two of the 'regular' receivers (which are single-feed)?


Yes. 'dumb' receivers are what they become. You probably don't want to use the TiVO functions while using it with Myth. You'll likely screw yourself. i.e. Myth is recording something and then the Tivo kicks in and changes the channel on you in the middle of your recording. Myth won't know this happened because the TiVO and Myth don't talk to eachother.

As far as I know (and I've never owned one) TiVO limits you to watching on a single tv. With MythTV you can watch from any frontend in the house. See my coments earlier re: Having dual tuner Tivos.

mohoelx wrote:
2-a) And if I went with stacking two 'regular' receivers, would this introduce any new issues with the IR Blaster?


No. See my comments earlier.

mohoelx wrote:
3) Is there any way to use the program guide data I already get from DTivo in Myth? (I suspect "no".)


Correct. No.

mohoelx wrote:
As much as I feel like I'm "in bed with the devil" with DirecTV, my one and only cable provider option is Comcast, and I'm not sure how it would be different. Is there something different in Cable or is it one Video Capture card per STB there also?


As far as I'm aware, it's the same deal.

mohoelx wrote:
Thanks


You're welcome. Hope this was helpful.
Author:  cecil [ Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:01 pm ]
Post subject: 
How does this fall under Hints & Tips?
Author:  mohoelx [ Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:28 pm ]
Post subject:  prolly doesn't
I think I may have mis-posted (hitting on "new topic" while reading various threads). Can I move it or is that something for the Mod's to do?

Sorry.
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