Making a DVR

I’ve wanted to make a DVR for quite a while now and finally gave it a shot using MythTV.  It took me a long day of googling and trying things but I finally got it working (for the most part).

I’m using Mythbuntu 9.04 connected by firewire to a Cox Cable Scientific Atlanta 4240HD box.  For a while I was pulling my hair out trying to get a picture to show up and I was about to give up after finding some posts suggesting my “Partial Lock” is a symptom of encrypted channels.  Then I found a post that said it may work if I turn the computer off and pull the power plug from the cable box, turn the computer on and then power up the cable box. That did it.  I’m getting all the channels I’ve checked except the movie channels so I’m pretty happy with MythTV so far.  It’s way better than the Cox DVR, even with no pay channels.

I still have some stuff to do like get a remote control for it and get that working but I think the hard part is done.

I’d really like to get my HDMI audio working too but for now, I’ve got it working well enough with a regular monitor cable and audio patch cord.  If anyone has any idea about HDMI audio from an Intel GMA X4500.  The video works great but I’m not getting any audio.