[mythtv-users] Digital Cable

[Ray Olszewski]

At 10:05 PM 2/25/2004 -0500, John F. DeLuca wrote:
>On 25 Feb 2004 at 12:42, jonasb at alum.rpi.edu wrote:
>
> >
> > I'm pretty new at htpc, and am trying to figure out if there's anyway
> > of having myth control my cable box (i.e. for the premium channels).
>Yes, you can control it via an IR blaster.
>I
> > assume that it can't decode them itself,
>Correct
> > but am I basically restricted
> > to regular cable through myth without changing the channel through the
> > cable box?
>An IR Blaster is your best (only) bet.  You can check out lirc.org for 
>some listed

Neither best nor only. Some digital-cable boxes (e.g., the DCT2xxx series) 
have serial ports that can be used to control them ... doing pretty much 
anything that the remote can do ... -IF- you cable provider has activated 
the serial port. TiVos can use this interface, for example.

If you have the current MythTV source download, look in the ./contrib 
directory for some example code. Also try searching the name of your cable 
box (I mean the hardware itself, not your cable provider) both on the Myth 
lists and in Google. I don't know if all modern cable boxes have this 
capability, but it does seem to be getting more and more common.