[mythtv-users] Digital Cable

[John F. DeLuca]

On 25 Feb 2004 at 21:09, Ray Olszewski wrote:

> 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.
> 
> 
True.....IR Blaster is neither best nor only option if you have an active serial port on 
your cable box.  Sadly, my cable box does not fall into that category so *my* best and 
only option to view digital cable channels with my Myth or Tivo is via IR Blaster.