Currently I do not have a set top box. I only have basic cable and so I run it directly to both of my two myth tuners.

I'm considering getting a set top box so I can get premium channels.

I'm a bit confused about a few things:

1) Ideally I'd like to route the output of the set top box to both the TV and to one of the tuners in the myth box. I have no experience with set top boxes. Will it be possible to use two outputs simultaneously (svideo, composite, or component). If you can only use one output at a time will it be likely that I can split the RF output or will that cause signal degradation problems?

2) If #1 works then I would have one myth tuner that would have access to all the basic and premium channels and one tuner that would have access to only the basic channels. Is there a way to "tell" each tuner which channels it can tune to? I know how to add/remove channels from the lineup, but I don't see a way to make this unique to each tuner.

Thanks in advance.

_________________
MSI K7N2GM2-LSR (Integrated Video)
Athlon XP 2800+
512M RAM
160GB WD
Hauppauge PVR-150

After a bit more reading it looks like what I'm looking for is in the setup program. I'm assuming I can have two different sources, like cable1 and cable2 and associate each with a different tuner. Is this correct?

One more question: once this is all set up is there any way to set priorities on which tuner is used for recording first. Obviously I would want the tuner that only has access to basic cable to be used first if I was recording a basic channel. This would leave the tuner with premium channels available if I then wished to record an encrypted channel.

Thanks again.

_________________
MSI K7N2GM2-LSR (Integrated Video)
Athlon XP 2800+
512M RAM
160GB WD
Hauppauge PVR-150

Get two set top boxes, that way you can use PIP and have access to the full range of channels on both tuners. It may cost you a little extra per month (depending on your cable company) but ultimately worth it. I think Comcast charges about $5 per extra box, and all they give out now are digital boxes. If you have a choice, and have digital cable for premium channels in your area, get the Motorola 2524 if you can, it's fast and works great with IR blasters.

Also yeah, you can split the RF signal, if it's a 2-way splitter it's just a 3.5 decibel drop in the signal, nothing to worry about unless the signal is weak to begin with.

OK, thanks for the suggestion. This raises some new questions.

I would like the ability to watch live tv without myth sometimes so I would need to locate at least one of the set top boxes so that it's ir receiver was able to be used with a standard remote. Would I locate the other set top box so that it's ir receiver was covered? I would not want both set top boxes to change channels when using the remote.

Curious to see if others agree that two set top boxes is the right decision.

Thanks.

_________________
MSI K7N2GM2-LSR (Integrated Video)
Athlon XP 2800+
512M RAM
160GB WD
Hauppauge PVR-150

I do something similar to that here. I have a signal chooser box (RCA model CRF940) that flips the input to the TV from myth to the cable box and back. Any el-cheapo RF switchbox should work, I got this one so I could deal with Svideo and composite. However, I only have a single digital cable box so not sure what to do about IR from the cable box remotes. I suppose you could always put some black electrical tape over the IR eye on the box you don't plan to control or block the signal some other way.

Regardless, if your mythbox has 2 tuners and you have digital cable, a dual cable box setup is your only choice. Myth cannot decode encrypted cable signals, the boxes have to do that for you and feed you the unencrypted signal. Even with firewire outputs on the cable box you're still pulling the same signal down so you get 1 channel at a time.

Now, if you wanted to bite the bullet, you could split the signal before it gets to the digital cable box. Half the split goes straight to a mythbox tuner, the other half to the cable box, then back into myth. This way you'd have a single digital box BUT one myth tuner would get full access to all channels and the other would only get 125 analog channels.

All in all it's up to you. If you want everything 'perfect', get 2 cable boxes.