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I am trying to figure out what I am going to need to get MythTV to work as a DVR as Ian describes. I do not have a tuner card, but will likely get one if I can figure out how to get all this to work AND it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg!. My server will be in my media closet away from any TV. I am a cox cable subscriber which requires a cable box to get the Digital and HD signal. It appears to me that in order for me to get the Digital and HD programming I would have to have either another cable box to hook up to the server or maybe a cable card to put into the server. Is that right? Would I also need a tuner card to go along with the cable card? I was looking on the cox web site and it is not clear to me that they even offer a cable card that would go in a PC. The one I was seeing seemed to indicate that it was meant for a TV that had the ability to accept a cable card.
Can anyone straighten me out as to what is needed to set this up?

Thanks,

Larry

I'm not sure how it works with Linux, since the last time I bothered with TV from anything but the internet was before I made the OS switch, but when I was setting a similar set up on Win7, This was what I needed:

1. A set-top box from the provider: usually when the require the box it's because they scramble the signal to prevent cable splicing, so you'll need to get an extra box from them to descramble for the computer.
2.A TV Tuner Card: You'll need the actual capture card for the computer, which will read the (now) descrambled signal/
3.IR Blaster: Here's where things get tricky. Because you need a box, the tuner can't actually change the channel, you'll need what they call an "IR Blaster" which essential lets the computer act like a remote control, so that it can change the channel on the set-top box.

Again, my experience with this set-up is with Windoze, so I have no experience configuring the blaster with Linux. I also don't know that there isn't a better solution available for linux, god knows we're ahead of microsoft in lots of other ways, why not here too?

hopefully someone else can help you more.

It makes sense that the tuner card could not change the channel now that I think about it. You always set the TV to one channel and use the remote to changes channels on the set top box. I'd bet that I could only record one show at a time as well. Cox offers a DVR cable box for another $10 a month, maybe that would be the path to take for me. This is looking more and more like something that will be more trouble than it is worth. But I still like learning about it.
This may be a stupid question. Can MythTv be used without a tuner card? I was thinking that it was a requirement.

1. A set-top box from the provider: usually when the require the box it's because they scramble the signal to prevent cable splicing, so you'll need to get an extra box from them to descramble for the computer.
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In my case I can receive a signal without the set-top box, but it only receives the basic channels and of course no HD channels either. I only have one set-top box, but I have 3 tvs connected to cable