[mythtv-users] Odds of Linux CableCARD support?

Joel Ostheller j.ostheller at gmail.com
Thu Apr 6 18:31:50 UTC 2006


Has anyone looked into the legal aspects of CableLabs products?

A while ago I looked at the Cablelabs Cablecard spec and it is a semi simple
interface to design to. It wouldn't be too much work for me to design some
custom hardware that did the proper handshaking to setup a channel with the
cable companies that are using cablecards.

My only problem with doing this is I have a feeling that it might be
illegal. There is no way I could get my custom hardware approved by
Cablelabs, and in the handshaking process I believe I would have to "lie" to
the cable companies as to what the hardware is (at least since it isn't an
approved cablelabs product). In addition to that, say I set up a link and
have the decryption algorithm, then I believe I would need software to do
the decoding which is probably over my head (Hardware engineering is so
easy, you software engineers are so cool (I'm not worthy!)). And then to top
it all off, there is no way I could ever sell anything like this because I'm
sure Cablelabs or the cable companies would probably sue me.

Anyways... I guess what I am saying is I know everyone wants a cablelabs
cablecard reader for their PC... It would be nice if I could provide that
without getting in trouble.

On 4/6/06, H P Ladds <householdwords at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Mike:
>
> http://www.vwbinc.com/products.html (Scroll to the very bottom). Perhaps
> the "Select" nomenclature is important -- I'm not certain what it means.
> Also, on closer inspection, it appears that the 5000 model is not available
> at CompUSA -- only the 4000.
>
>
>
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