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Just moved--now have cable box. What to do?
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Author:  aravenel [ Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:27 am ]
Post subject:  Just moved--now have cable box. What to do?
Hi all... I just relocated, and naturally brought my Myth box with me. However, some things have changed, and I wanted to get some collective wisdom here to try to figure out what I need to do to get it back up and running.

Previously, my cable came directly over the line and into my PVR-150, no cable box required. However, I now have to use a cable box, a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3100 if that helps anyone. Here's where it gets tricky--I'm not sure whether it's digital or not. I did not request digital cable, but when they first installed the box, I was getting the program information and such that normally comes with digital cable. However, as of this morning all that information is gone, and I just get the normal channels without the program information. I chalk this up to it being the weekend when the box was installed, and someone must have flipped on all the controls this morning.

Anyways, what I am wondering is:

--How do I determine whether this is a digital signal or not?
--If it is not a digital signal, do you think it is possible to tune the channels without the cable box?
--How am I going to get the signal into the MythTV box? My cable box does not have a firewire port--does this mean I will have to use an IR Blaster?
--What about digital tuner cards (ex: pc-HDTV HD-5500). Are these used for anything other than tuning HDTV? Could I potentially use one of these and bypass the cable box?

Basically, I'm trying to figure out what I'll need to do to get my MythTV box back up and running on this new setup. Any suggestions or pointers are much appreciated.

Thanks!
Author:  cliffsjunk [ Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:44 am ]
Post subject: 
If it is analog cable (ask your cable company) you might hook
it straight to the PVR-150 and tune it that way. I have a
PVR-350 that I just use for SVideo capture and TV out.

If it is digital, then you could capture the unencrypted channels
with something like an HD-5500, but not the encrypted ones. I
have another system with an HD-5500 that I use to capture
SVideo and receive OTA digital broadcasts.

In both of my systems, most channels come thru a set
top box that I have to control with an IRBLASTER sending
commands to them. Of course I use LIRC to receive commands
from my remotes. This is what you need to do; LIRC to get
commands from your remote and IRBLASTER to send commands
to your set top box. Set up your PVR-150 to capture the
video signal coming out of your set top box and plug the sound
output from your set top box into the line in on your sound
card. From there there is a little configuring to do to tell it to
do things like:
- get sound from the sound card line input (setup and
alsamixer)
- use an external channel change script to change channels
(mythtv-setup)

You can buy a single device that does both LIRC and IRBLASTER
and connects to your serial port. They cost about $25 US.

I have probably glossed over or forgotten something so you
should search the forums here for LIRC IRBLASTER or something
similar by author Greg Frost.

Cliff
Author:  aravenel [ Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:40 am ]
Post subject: 
OK, so what I'm gathering from your post is that most channels will be encrypted and will require the use of the cable set top box, and that I'll have to leave it in the loop to do the decrypting, and that I will need to setup IRBlaster to control the set-top box. Is this correct?
Author:  thornsoft [ Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Just moved--now have cable box. What to do?
aravenel wrote:
--How do I determine whether this is a digital signal or not?


Plug it into an analog TV and see what channels you get. Those are the analog channels.
Author:  aravenel [ Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:54 am ]
Post subject: 
I'll try that tonight, but I'm going to venture a guess that most of them are encrypted.

Problem: I only have one serial port, but need serial to control LIRC for my remote, and IRBlaster for my STB. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this?

Also, I'm trying to find some good guides, but haven't found a whole lot--are there any "definitive" threads or guides I should be looking at?

Thanks!
Author:  tjc [ Mon Aug 04, 2008 5:42 pm ]
Post subject: 
USB -> RS-232 serial adapter?
Author:  bigbro [ Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:24 am ]
Post subject: 
If you are using the PVR-x50 cards they offer inputs for video and Audio so I don't believe you need to plug audio from the STB into the sound input on you soundcard/motherboard.

Also I think you mentioned it was a PVR-150 did that come with the IRBlaster and Remote control? If so and you still have it that may be an easier solution for your tuning the stb.

Otheriwse everyting above applies
Author:  Martian [ Tue Aug 05, 2008 12:14 pm ]
Post subject: 
You could use a USB StreamZap IR receiver and that should free up your serial port to use an IR Blaster.

Martian
Author:  goofee [ Tue Aug 05, 2008 12:47 pm ]
Post subject: 
I never had any luck using a USB -> serial adapter with my homebrew reciever. Could be a cheap adapter, wrong driver, lack of experience at the time. I was successfull with a Y cable. The serial reciver and transmitter use different pins on the serial port so I made a Y cable to run them both from the same port and it works perfectly.
Author:  bigbro [ Tue Aug 05, 2008 4:43 pm ]
Post subject: 
I would think that since the Receiver/Blaster is home brew you could build it all coming out of 1 db-9 or db 25 connector.

Send and receive are different lines in a serial port so no worries there.

I seem to remember seeing one version that used that concept, but they also used some form of voltage pull-up on the Blaster portion to ensure it had enough Intensity (read range)
Author:  aravenel [ Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:07 am ]
Post subject: 
It appears that my PVR-150 has IR-blaster support--it's got the port on the back at least. Would this be a good way to go? Whats the Knoppmyth/Mythtv support for the PVR-150 IRBlaster?
Author:  ceenvee703 [ Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:32 am ]
Post subject: 
aravenel wrote:
Whats the Knoppmyth/Mythtv support for the PVR-150 IRBlaster?


http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... hSetTopBox

I think with 5.5 you can pretty much skip down to Step 3 and start from there.
Author:  aravenel [ Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:29 pm ]
Post subject: 
Does anyone know if someone sells replacement PVR-150 IR blasters? I can't find the one that came with my card. I'm thinking trying the PVR-150 route first might be a good idea as I only have one serial port, and am not sure that it's worth messing with it to get an addon card up and running.
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