[mythtv-users] Odds of Linux CableCARD support?

Joe Votour joevph at yahoo.com
Tue Jan 10 23:52:27 UTC 2006



--- Yeechang Lee <ylee at pobox.com> wrote:

> Jonathan Oexner <jonathan.oexner at alum.wpi.edu> says:
> > Yeah, I was happy to learn that RCN Boston doesn't
> use 5C
> > encryption.
> 
> I'm happy to report that RCN San Francisco does not
> either.
> 
> Once CableCARD 2.0 ships, what do y'all think are
> the odds of a
> PCI-slot expansion board that comes with one or two
> CableCARD slots,
> *regardless of Linux support*? I figure that having
> the hardware
> actually available (as opposed to slots only being
> available on new,
> presumably MCE-enabled, PCs) is more than 50% of
> getting MythTV
> support done, and if it takes binary, non-free
> drivers for Linux
> support--� la Nvidia or ATi--I don't mind as long
as
> they
> work.
> 
> -- 
> Yeechang Lee <ylee at pobox.com> | +1 650 776 7763 |
> San Francisco CA US
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> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>
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> 

It's hard to say whether or not there would be a PCI
board.  The only design that I've heard of with
CableCARD (1.0) support was a Shuttle (I think)
machine, and thus, it was built into the motherboard. 
Normally I'd say that some company would just
manufacture them unlicensed, but they'd be slapped
with some sort of DMCA lawsuit, likely.  Then I'd say,
manufacture and sell them outside of the U.S., but I'm
not even sure if CableCARD has been proposed outside
of North America.  (CableLabs is the CableCARD and
DOCSIS specifications writer in the United States,
Europe, although they have EuroDOCSIS, it is done by a
different consortium of European cable operators).

I'm predicting 0% chance of official CableCARD support
in Linux.  Unofficially, there might be binary
drivers, but I really doubt that.  I'm pretty sure
that Microsoft had to jump through hoops to get
CableCARD support allowed in MCE (CableLabs is pretty
bad, I've worked for two companies that dealt with
them), and anything that is seen as an "open platform"
is just begging to get the big red rubber stamp of
denial.

To me, the bigger challenge is not necessarily whether
or not a PCI card could be reverse engineered (because
it could, it just takes a talented person with the
right equipment, even if they encrypt everything on
the bus), but what kind of data the CableCARD gives
us.  If the data that we get from the CableCARD is
completely encrypted, then we'll be limited in the
things we can do with it (commercial flagging would
likely not be possible, since MythTV has to analyze
the contents of the stream).

I would really like a legitmate CableCARD solution for
Linux, but I want it to have the current featureset of
analog cable.  Wishful thinking, I know.

-- Joe

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