I have recently upgraded to DirecTV HDTV and decided that, with DTV possibly dropping TIVO in 2007, that I would pass on a DirecTivo box and build a home brew PVR using MythTv and either Debian (my current fav distro) or KnoppMyth.

My current issue is that I do not know what brand of HD receiver I will be getting until the install rep comes. I am assuming it will be the Directv H10 as News Corp seems to want to do it all in house.

To my knowledge this unit does not have a serial port meaning my solution for Myth control of the receiver will most likely be Ir blaster.

I know enough about Linux to keep myself out of trouble but I am a total neophyte regarding lirc. I can find no config files for the h10.

How hard would it be to create one from scratch? Does anyone have experience using this receiver and MythTv? Am I totally on the wrong track?

Thanks in advance!

Also, there seems to be a second RJ-11 jack for "features". can this be used as a serial port?

Implied in your message is that you perhaps want to record high-definition content from your HD satellite receiver. At present, this is problematic.

High-def satellite receivers do not have a port suitable for recording their HD content. They usually have component video outputs, and these can't be used to record the signal. What would be required is either an unencrypted firewire output, or a totally separate receiver card which would go in the PC. Neither exist in a form usable with MythTv.

There is a company which sells modded DirecTV receivers with a firewire port, but its output is non-standard and there are no MythTv drivers for this device (169time.com). Without such drivers it is totally unusable for this purpose.

It's not a rosy outlook for recording DirecTV shows in high-definition. Frankly I don't know of any solution to this problem and I'm not real optimistic that it will be solved, since DirecTV wants to sell the PVR themselves. They are not motivated to cooperate with any other solution that will record their content.

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I also find it odd that the fcc does not concider sat like they do cable, they force cable to have a "functional" firewire output, but no such rulings for sat, I find that odd. I'm sure that withouth the helpfull nudge from the fcc we wouldn't have recordable hdtv from cable either.

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If I am building a MythTV box to be used with a DirecTV (not HDTV), do I need a tuner card or a capture card?

Any recommendations as what brand and model?

Alan

well a capture card would work, however I am not aware of any that do not have a tuner, so they are basically one in the same. Though there may be a capture only card out there that I'm not aware of.

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