If I'm using DirecTV and their settop box with MythTV what combination of hardware will I need?

Do I need a video capture card for each source (settop box)?
Do I need a tv tuner card for each source?

If I want one HD source and one normal definition, what arrangement of capture and tv tuner cards do I need?

Thanks for helping the newbie, everytime I think I've got it sorted out, I get lost again.

DirecTv is no problem when using "regular" channels. You need to control the sat receiver (usually with a serial cable and a perl script) and record the standard NTSC signal with a recorder card, just as you would an antenna. The normal PVR-xxx cards work great for this application because they convert the signal to MPEG2 in hardware, right on the card.

HDTV is problematic. DirecTv HD receivers have no firewire output, and there's no technology that will allow you to record from component video or HDMI output. So, for now, there is NO solution to recording HD signals over DirecTv. Sorry for bearing the bad news.

However -- you can usually get a number of HD stations via antenna, unless you are in the boonies. It's worth checking out http://www.antennaweb.org just to see which stations are near and what antenna you're likely to need.

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Thanks for the answer.
If I want to do a 2 tuner system, using directv, what hardware will I need 2 of?

Will I need 2 set top boxes?

Yes. Whatever your "effective tuner" is.

Ok, so if I have 2 settop boxes, the output of these boxes then go to.....what? And how many of these are their?

Thanks for your patience.

The bad news is that you need a capture card per stream too.

It's not that bad, tjc. Doesn't the PVR-500 support two streams in a single card? And it's not all that expensive, is it? (I admit I don't know that much about standard TV because I only record HD.)

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Well in this guys case he needs seperate inputs too, for the seperate cable boxes and the 500 only has combined inputs... I also think using a combiner here is contra-indicated.

2 DTV tuner boxes, connected to 2 PVR-XXX's.....got it.

Next thing.....

I currently am running a DTV/Tivo that does have a serial out, but where would the other end of this cable go?....Looking at some info, I suppose it just goes to a serial out on the back of the computer...right?

Also....
I have an older desktop: HP Pavilion 7950, AMD Athlon 1.2, 128 mb and 60gb hd.

If I up the ram by 528 and get a PVR-XXX will this suffice for a introductory box (then if/when I go to this full time I would up the HD and add the second source/PVR-XXX). Am I leaving out any hardware?

I see in the wiki that a pvr-350 will eliminate the use of a video card, is this the best option?

I currently have an extra Directv/Tivo box, if I shut down all the recording of the tivo, is there anyway to control this as if it were two sources? Or would I have to use it as only one source and ignore the other?

Once again, thanks for the help!!

I'm new to the forum and new to Mythtv, so I apologize for asking old questions. I've searched the forums and this thread seems to be the closet to my situation. But it appears Batkin's last post has yet to be answered.
To restate his question, to my own situation, I'm a DirecTV user and I want to switch to Myth.
From reading this thread I've come to the folowing conclusions:
1. one PVR-XXX per tuner is required.
2. a hardware PVR card is better then software (I'm considering Hauppauge PVR-150, is this a good start?)
3. a PVR-500 card can capture two signals but still requires two DTV boxes with a serial cable to each, controlled by a script.
I'm less concerned about capturing two signals then I am about making sure I have the proper configuation for at least one DTV box to Myth box.
Any clarification/answer to Batkin's last post would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Let's just start with YOUR question. I can't guess which of the five questions in the previous post you're most interested in...

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I think what's tripping me up is how to properly replace my Directv/tivo with a myth set such that I can record on two tuners. When I look at my current setup I only see one DTV/tivo box. But after reading this thread I think I will need two DTV tuners to connect to two PVR cards (or a PVR-500 card).
So am I correct in assuming I will need to replace my current DTV/tivo box with two DTV tuners before trying to connect them to a Myth box? (If so I'll need to see about splitting the single set of cables to support connections to two tuners.)
If this is correct, then will I also need two serial cables, one from each tuner connected to a single myth box, correct?

Yes, to record two satellite channels you need to have two DirecTv receivers. To have two receivers, you need something called a "multiswitch" which allows you to run additional receivers from the single antenna. You also have to pay DirecTv another $5/mo. to run the second receiver. Then you need dual recorder cards for your KnoppMyth box, and serial control for each DirecTv receiver.

Cable companies are required by FCC to have firewire outputs on their HD cable boxes, but satellite companies have no such requirement. I only use my satellite (and its attached "standard" Tivo) for recording the odd Comedy Channel or Discovery show. I use direct over-the-air recording for all network programming, which is 90% of my viewing. The "local channels" over the satellite are such crappy signals they aren't even worth watching.

It's all pretty discouraging to be honest.

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Some good links:

http://www.dtvcontrol.com/
http://www.pdp8.net/directv/directv.shtml

The dtvcontrol site has a chart of tested/untested DTV boxes.



HTH,
Mike

This is probably a super newb question, but a quick search didn't give me the answer. I have an HDTV and a Standard TV. I'm contemplating eliminating DirecTV since all we really watch is found on the OTA HDTV network channels. If I were to record an HDTV program, like Smallville, I understand I can watch it on the HDTV set. Would I have any issue watching it on the STV? I have a VGA --> Component converter I'll be using for the HDTV, and a regular video card with tv out to the STV.

While I'm asking dumb questions - a coworker and I are embarking on this MythTV project at the same time. Could we mount one of each others' partitions across a dsl/cable network and effectively share and/or transfer recordings? This is theoretical since it's probably not legal, but ... is it possible?

Thanks!