Hello,

I'm in the UK, and thinking of installing knoppmyth, but before I do so, I wonder whether someone could answer a few questions. Please forgive me for asking such basic questions - I heve tried looking through the forum, but can't see these questions :

Q1. The general installation instructions for MythTV seems to talk mainly about adding a TV/PVR card (eg from Hauppauge) - is it possible to change the configuration to have more than one of these cards, or to use a card that had 2 tuners - I would like to be able to record one channel while watching another with 'live pause' (or record 2 channels) Is this supported?

Q2. I intend to get cable or sky - is it possible to set up MythTV so that I can record from cable or sky with one or both tuners, or can I only record from the freeview channels that the tuner will pickup?

Many thanks for any help

For Q1, yes you can have multiple tuners. I originally installed mine with a PCHD3000. Then I added an Air2PC5000 and KnoppMyth picked it right up. I went into the configuration screen, and it was right there. I just had to assign the antenna and scan for channels. Piece of cake.
So I would expect that you'd have good luck with any supported cards.
For Q2, I don't know, but folks in the USA connect to their existing SAT receiver boxes and control with IRBlasters. So you should be able to find examples of using it in the UK. Search the forum for UK (or related terms), and you should find lots of info.

Absolutely. Lurk around here awhile and you will find many folks with 2, 3, 4 or more tuners going. I personally use a PVR-150, PVR-350 and Fusion HDTV5. Others are using the PVR-500 (dual tuner).

As for your other question I would venture to answer "Yes", but I will defer that one to your countrymen (I'm in the US, wouldn't want to give you bad information).

Good luck!

As you can see, I've got 3 cards (in place of the PVR 350 I was using a WinTV Theatre) So there should be no problem, it's mostly to do with your PC spec. If you are using a PVRx50 or a DVB card, these need less horsepower then a straight video capture card.
As for multiple tuners on the same card (such as as the ones that have a Analogue and a Digital tuner), you need to be careful, as some of these can only record one source at time. You will need to look carefully at the specs.
Most Analogue cards have multiple inputs, Tuner, Composite Video and possibly S-Video, AFAIK you can only use one of these inputs at a time.



There's no problem recording from a Sky / ntl:Telewest STB, you use the Composite or S-Video input of your card. I wouldn't use the RF output from your STB, as this is a lower quality signal. To control the STB to switch to an appropriate channel you will need a IR Blaster such as the Red Eye serial to send the channel change signals to the STB.
To record from a STB you will need an Analogue card, as the STBs output analogue signals, even though the STBs receive Digital Signals.

Bruce S.

_________________
Updated 2019/10/26: AthlonII X2 265 Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P
16Gb PC 1866 DDR3, 500GB+2TB+4TB SATA HDD,
SATA DVD-RW Asus DRW-24D5MT , NVIDIA GeForce GT1080
Hauppauage Nova-T 500, Nova-T LinHes R8.6.1