I have a failing DVD player, and a digital cable box that does have recording capabilities in my entertainment center. I am considering building a MythTV box for my center, which would allow replacement of the DVD player, TV recording, MP3 playback, as well as radio. I'm guessing I'll need to purchase a RGB-to-coax converter to display my video output on my old TV.

I would like to know who of you have completed a project like this, issues you had, and considerations you think should be made.

One concern I currently have is about my cable box. Being that it is digital, I doubt MythTV would be able to replace it directly. I'm guessing I'd need to change channels on the cable box and tune MythTV to the box's output channel. Does this sound right?

Hi, I tackled this project on FC5 and used yum to successfully download all required packages. My biggest problem was my TV card - KWorld Xpert TV PVR7134 - which is not a world beater and needed a little module setup. In hindsight I should have invested in a better quality/supported video capture card.

The TvTime viewer helped to get straight forward TV watching going before I tackled the Myth stuff.

I battled to come to terms with some of the concepts (we don't have cable in SA) and a lot of the setup stuff but committed googling got me there eventually. Still got to get the IR remote controller setup properly though.

I can watch, schedule & record TV (one channel at a time).
Recorded programs can be saved to DVD.
DVDs also play fine.

Bear in mind that you will need a nice quiet box if you are going to use it in your home entertainment centre (fan noise can be loud) - I doubt that I would want a PC there.

Visit http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/09/...v_convergence/ for a good basic grounding in the project.

Reviving this old thread. (Mine anyway ... I can do what I want )

I've been told that I would not be able to view Pay-Per-View or cable On-Demand shows if I get a tuner, and remove the cable box. I probably wouldn't be able to view my HBO and Showtime channels either.

Both of these roadblocks are understandable, though annoying. I would like to know if anyone has successfully managed to do either with the cable box out of the equation. I don't want to waste my money if the project is doomed from the start, and I am unable to replace the box.

We don't have cable in South Africa we use satellite instead. From my reading your "cable box" serves the same function as my "satellite decoder". Both are there to ensure that your signal provider gets his monthly subscription otherwise your service is discontinued.

Whilst both types of decoder probably use a bare bones linux kernel to descramble the signal I have not heard of anything running on a standard linux distro to perform the function. If it does exist it would obviously be a hack by someone au fait with the technology and its legal standing would be somewhat dubious I imagine - stealing bandwith maybe?? - big brother would not be happy!!

HOWEVER - if you're not looking for free cable the following might be of interest.

I have the coax video output of my satellite decoder combined with my normal terrestrial (TV aerial) coax feeding my Myth box and all the other TVs with no problems. If your cable box has a coax output I don't see why you can't do the same. Note that MythTV would regard your cable as a TV signal source.

Hope this clarifies things.

No, not trying to steal cable. Simply trying to remove the box from the equation. I would like to be able to change channels via MythTV, rather than through the cable box, reducing the overall complexity of the whole system.

I've heard that there are digital tuners out there ... somewhere. Is it possible for a cable company to allow feed to those tuners, rather than their own cable boxes? There was a time, when if you owned your own cable modem, the cable company would allow you to use it, rather than to rent one of theirs. They just needed to know the MAC ID of the modem.

Sorry slowcoder not having cable in our neck of the woods (yet) I can't help you with this. I suggest you start a new thread so it goes into zero replies to attract more attention.