This is exactly what I have been tryign to determine. I have 2 PVR cards and I want to connect one Digital cable box to each.

yes and of course no one has answered that question. I think it's because nobody here knows and only a couple of people are wanting to do it, and those people are less familiar than everyone else. My guess is that the question will have to be asked over on the mythtv mailing list. Hopefully the answer will be posted back here for posperity.

Ok All,

The real answer firstly depends where you live, and whether your cable provider supports two digital boxes on the same cable (not all do).

If you can get two digital STBs then you can decrypt two different channels at the same time. The cable feed split is a simple 2-way RF splitter on the input. Then you must feed the output of each box to its own input card in the Myth PC. You can feed the digital STB to the tuner cards via either RF or Composite. Some digital STBs also have S-Video, but not many.

Unless you have a "loadsa GHz" PC available, I suggest the PVR 250s or 350s. With this setup you can manually select the required channels on each digital STB and then watch & record to your heart's content.

*** Now The Problem. . . . . How to get Myth to control two identical STBs on different channels at the same time ?? A simple Lirc IR blaster will put both boxes on the same channel, but what if they are out of step and you use up/down ? There is some stuff on Dual Lirc on the Myth list, but I can't find anyone who has it working.

There seems to be a worldwide lack or STB Serial support from the cable companies.

In the UK, ntl & Telewest will NOT do it. I personally think the Sky STB may be controllable via the RF out-2 connector. ( http://www.gossamer-threads.com/perl/mailarc/gforum.cgi?post=96582;search_string=sky%20remote;guest=1977708&t=search_engine#96582)

In the US the DCTxxxx has serial but the cable co. switches it off. Most cable co's don't know they have switched it off because GI/Motorola did it for them. The later DCT5000 has the connector but the chip is missing from the pcb anyway.
Dunno about the other vendor's STBs.

So in conclusion it will work sort of, but you may have trouble with automatic channel changing.

Rgds & good luck,
Pete

What type of serial cable would I get to control my cable box? I have read RS232 is the type of cable I would use. I just want to verify that I just need a 9 pin male to female cable.

Ports:
cable box has a 9 pin female
computer has 9 pin male (com port 1 or 2)

This thread has your answer:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/perl/mailarc/gforum.cgi?post=104437;search_string=serial%20cable;guest=2400021&t=search_engine#104437

Thanks mike!!! Darn Sunday, stores close too early. Cant wait to try it tomorrow.

pwood999, pete


I am in the UK, and my dad has virgin media and a set top box, and I am
trying to get myth going with it.

Could you possibly send me an email to the address below, and we can share experiences.

_________________
Thanks in advance
Matt Shaw
matt@shagshaw.com

AMD Sempron 2400+ on Via Motherboard,
512MB Ram, 160GB IDE HDD,
Nvidia Geforce FX5500 128MB TV-Out,
2 x Twinhan DVB-T BT878 (Freeview UK)
KnoppMYTH R5F27

Don't know about the MOT boxes, but I asked my cable company for an HD box which comes with a firewire port (Scientific Atlanta 3250). I use the firewire port on my myth box to change the channels on the STB with sa3250ch (external channel changing program). This should work with more than one cable box, though I haven't tried it.

Just mentioning it as firewire hasn't been mentioned as a potential solution.

_________________
nMediaPC HT100SA ASUS A8N-VM CSM
AMD 3200+ AMPO DDR 3200 512MB RAM
PVR-150 (1062) WD 320 GB SATA-2 HD
NEC OEM ND-3550A DVD burner
D-Link DWL-G510 PCI wireless adapter
MS wireless optical desktop 1000
R5F27 (+ modified sa3250ch)