WinTV-PVR-500 hardware modification?

[jwilson56]

Well you know us Cocooners.....

I am working on switching over to use Comcast DTA's in front of my SageTV server's PVR-500 card using a USB-UIRT and two zones. The snag I ran into and didn't anticipate (I have not looked at the card in years since I installed it) was that there is only one coax to feed both tuners. So I am thinking of looking into the possibility of trying to make a hardware modification to split the tuner inputs into separate coaxial inputs by using the FM coax that is not being used in my setup to feed two DTA's into the PVR-500. Not sure it it is possible yet. I have an electronics degree so I don't mind doing some soldering. I just wanted to know check to see if anyone has seen a mod like this or had any experience before I take it apart.

 

[DavidL]

Well you know us Cocooners.....

I am working on switching over to use Comcast DTA's in front of my SageTV server's PVR-500 card using a USB-UIRT and two zones. The snag I ran into and didn't anticipate (I have not looked at the card in years since I installed it) was that there is only one coax to feed both tuners. So I am thinking of looking into the possibility of trying to make a hardware modification to split the tuner inputs into separate coaxial inputs by using the FM coax that is not being used in my setup to feed two DTA's into the PVR-500. Not sure it it is possible yet. I have an electronics degree so I don't mind doing some soldering. I just wanted to know check to see if anyone has seen a mod like this or had any experience before I take it apart.

When you say "coax"...is this RF via RG6 or component input (R/B/G plus audio), or composite (single RCA jack plus audio)? Are you trying to incorporate a "source" switch of which Comcast receiver is being actively used as the PVR500 source? Does this need to be manual or switched by an HA induced signal (or IR?)

 

[jwilson56]

If you look at the card you can see it has two tuners onboard. It is essentially two PVR-250's on one card. You will also note that there are two coaxial F type connectors. One is for your analog cable and the other one is for FM. What I am thinking is that the one coaxial is feeding both the tuners through the printed circuit therefore I might be able to cut the trace to the second tuner as well as the FM coaxial connector and connect the FM coaxial connector to the second tuner. I will have to pull the card to see if it looks feasible.

First thing I have to do though is to get my STB and DTA activated properly. As of right now they will all receive only certain channels (none of the local channels like 2,4 or 7). Comcast is going to reissue the activation codes so in an hour I will see if that fixes that. Secondly I need to make sure that SageTV can handle the Pace DC50X IR protocol as well as handling multiple IR zones from the USB-UIRT. I have not gotten a good answer from searching the SageTV forums. After I get all that worked out I will worry about the second DTA. At worst I get cut down to two HD QAM tuners with the HDHR for local channels and one DTA to handle extended basic digital channels for TBS, USA ect