>This is a basic question, but are you saying that you are successfully >recording high-definition TV shows over firewire from your digital >cable box?
Yes, I have been since about September of last year. > I am going to be getting that very model STB in a couple of months and will > be interfacing it with mythtv. I will probably have some questions. Would > you mind if I emailed you if I get stuck? I won't be a pest :) Feel free. I have been recording in one way or another with my box for a while. :) >So what happens with non-HD signals through the firwire port? > >Does -everything- including the non-HD channels get piped out the firewire >port, or is that provider dependant? There are 4 different groups of stations that I receive from my cable system. 1. Analog stations 2. Digital (non HD) stations 3. Unprotected HD stations 4. Protected digital stations 1. Most cable boxes still pass through the analog signals for the stations that are broadcasted in an analog format. This would be any station that you can get by just plugging your cable directly into your TV. If this is the case with your cable co. you won't get any video over the firewire port for these stations. 2. These stations are broadcast in a transport stream just like the HD stations are, but are just encoded at a lower resolution / bitrate. These can be treated identically to the unprotected HD stations. These stations are encoded and broadcasted in mpeg2 format and are the ones you will be able to receive and record over the firewire port of your cable box. 3. Same as #2 but with higher resolutions / bitrates 4. Some of the digital stations I receive are flagged with the 'copy once' and 'copy never' broadcast flags. None of these stations are able to be recorded into your computer. Stations that are flagged in this manner are encrypted before being transmitted over the firewire interface and only 5C certified devces are able to decrypt them as they have been certified to adhere to the 5C copy protection standard. Since computers are open ended and can't be easily locked down as a standalone recorder can, there is currently no method to record these streams short of a commercial firewire recording device like a DVHS or A/V Disc. My cable co. (Cox Phoenix) has the 'copy once' flags set for all premium stations (HBO, Cinemax, Starz, etc) and 'copy never' set on PPV stations, but the remainder of the HD and digital stations are not encrypted. This includes inHD, inHD2, ESPN HD, Discovery HD, etc.. >I'm about to build my first Myth box, and it will be on my 65" Mitsubishi >RP. If I dont have to buy a PVR250 and a pcHDTV, it will make it a lot >easier to get past the finance dept(read - wife). With the above being the case, you would not need the pcHDTV card (if you cable co transmits the HD stations over cable unencrypted, which I believe is a FCC requirement). Since you will need a pretty beefy system to deinterlace and playback HD streams you would probably be able to get by without a PVR250 card and go with a cheaper card without the built in encoder, though the system may get stressed when trying to record and play back HD streams at the same time. --Dave Madsen
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