[mythtv-users] Firewire DCT recording -> Myth?
km at mathcs.emory.edu
Sat Jun 30 17:46:32 UTC 2007
Tom Greer" <trgreer at gmail.com> writes;
I have a system with three DCT6xxx boxes including a DCT-6416 and I
have an HDHomeRun as well. So my setup is similar to yours.
The only reason I have the 6416 is as a backup (I had to wean my wife
off of it). At this point, I really no longer need it. I should
exchange it for a non-DVR box and save some money...
I still don't understand why you don't let Myth control the DCT box
all the time. I am struggling to see the value in what you are trying
If you could help us understand, perhaps we could assist.
I have a variety of reasons, maybe not all good.
First, since $18/month for a DVR is the only way to get a firewire box
out of Comcast, I feel cheated ignoring its second tuner and recording
hardware. It's just a lot of money to use it as a dumb tuner.
There are also reliability issues. Even with firewire-tester the
transfers are not completely reliable. Most of the times it works, but
not always. If I let the DVR record the program, I have the option of
doing the transfer until it works, or watching it from the DVR.
Compounding the reliability issue, Comcast silently switches strategies
from time to time about what gets marked 5C=0, depending on firmware and
headend changes. There was a period where two of the OTA networks were
coming up at 5C=2. At the moment everything is 5C=0, but it could change
on a dime.
There are also reasons why I sometimes like watching directly from the
DVR. WCompared with my computer hardware, the DVR does a better jobs on
sequences with a lot of horizontal motion. I like some aspects of the
DVR interface, like the progress bar, and look forward to the Tivo
firmware for its improvement. Myth is a big win for flexibility,
location mobility and storage capacity.
I can certainly hack around the difficulties I raised with doing manual
"transfers". I just thought someone may have done it already.
More information about the mythtv-users