More TV Tuner Questions

[Techstyle]

Seeing as today there are lots of TV tuner questions I thought I would add mine:

I have just moved to the US (Milwaukee, WI) and do not have any hardware yet for TV tuning or as a PVR.  I have a LMCE core and MD's (in a container with the rest of my stuff) with no tuner card.

My local cable provider is Time Warner and direct TV is available via satelite.  I would normally subscribe to a couple of premium channels such as HBO, Cinemax or Showtime.  All my LMCE MD's are HD ready and I would like to recieve HD to them

What is the best way for me to approach this?
1)  Is there a tuner card that will allow me to recieve all the content I want in both SD and HD?
2)  If not, is there a video capture card that will take the HDMI digital signal or component signal output from a Cable or direct TV box and encode it?

I have read the Wiki and searched on this and it is still somewhat unclear

Thanks in advance
Jason

[Techstyle]

Any Ideas, Anybody?

[Afkpuz]

Ok, I can help a bit.  First and foremost, to get both analog and digital, you'll either need two tuners or a compatible hybrid card.  Hybrids can tune both analog or digital.

Something else to note: I know some (maybe all) providers require a set top box to tune HD TV.   They do this if the HD is encrypted.  If this is the case in your area, you'll need to control your set top box and pipe video into LMCE through the inputs on those tuner cards.

There are several tuners that can pick up digital.  Search the wiki and forum for tuners.  The HDhomerun comes highly recommended for digital.

[skeptic]

As of now, there are no HD video capture devices (HDMI/Component) that work in LMCE, so if you need to get the video from a STB you're stuck with SD.  Drivers for the HD PVR are apparently in the works.

[krys]

The HD-PVR looks promising, but am I the only one who thinks its weird that it doesnt have a HDMI input? Seems like it would be much better/easier that way.

[skeptic]

The HD-PVR looks promising, but am I the only one who thinks its weird that it doesnt have a HDMI input? Seems like it would be much better/easier that way.

Could be because of potential encryption on HDMI/DVI (HDCP)?  It would be nice if it had HDMI with full audio support, but at this point I'll take anything that lets me record HD from my cable provider.  A digital HD tuner able to get all the channels I pay for so I could completely dump the STB would be even better.

[Dale_K]

Currently I'm using a PVR 150 capture card (not HD).  I have HDMI from my HD cable box directly into HDMI2 on my TV, SVideo from my cable box to the SVideo input on the PVR150 in my MD.  My MD is plugged into HDMI1 on my TV.

So, essentially, when I want to watch a movie/show in HD I switch inputs on my TV and watch the cable box live.  I'm using the SVideo connection to record TV shows that aren't available On Demand, i.e. Heroes and the like.

Obviously, I'm also using the MD to play media stored on the Core.

I realize this isn't a full LMCE solution as I'm still switching to my cable box, but it's a solution that gives me the best of both worlds (HDTV and LMCE function) with minor inconvenience.  I'm sure more HD tuner support will be forthcoming so I'm happy with my setup for now.

[skeptic]

It's not HD tuner support that's the real issue, HD Homerun supposedly works great.  It's the cable companies desire to force you to use their STB by encrypting so much crap that causes the problem.  Most of my channels, including almost all the ones I record shows on, are encrypted leaving me with no choice but to capture from the STB. 

My setup is almost identical to yours, the only difference is my STB is connected to the TV via component 'cause the STB doesn't have HDMI output.

[Dale_K]

It's not HD tuner support that's the real issue, HD Homerun supposedly works great.  It's the cable companies desire to force you to use their STB by encrypting so much crap that causes the problem.  Most of my channels, including almost all the ones I record shows on, are encrypted leaving me with no choice but to capture from the STB. 

My setup is almost identical to yours, the only difference is my STB is connected to the TV via component 'cause the STB doesn't have HDMI output.

Perhaps "tuner" isn't what I mean.  Given the arguable necessity of an STB (I'm not giving up On-Demand), what is really needed is a capture card that has an HD input.  As I see it, that's the real issue.  I don't use my PVR150 as a "tuner" at all, if it had an HDMI or Component input instead of SVideo I'd be set.

[skeptic]

Ah, yes, a capture card.  You have basically two options that I know of, neither is very good. 

1 - you MIGHT be able to use firewire if you have a STB outputs non-encrypted video.  Firewire is not natively supported by LMCE so it's not going to integrate well unless you create a template for it (perhaps Thom can point you in the right direction or search the wiki).  However, you can set it up from within Myth separately, at least as a test.  In my case I tried it and while the picture quality was great I was still stuck with the same channels as my tuner card, the encrypted ones are still encrypted over firewire.     It's also not very stable and can cause Myth to lock-up if you try to tune an encrypted channel including changing the STB outside of Myth (ie - via STB remote).  Currently I have firewire defined on my MD in my bedroom, but only so I can go into Myth without getting the no inputs available loop and only long enough to back out to the recorded shows area.  I do not record anything on it.

2 - wait until something like the HD PVR is fully supported.