[mythtv-users] firewire and time warner cable

[Inor Kuo]

>>Yeah.  They cut us off completely in January out here in the L.A. area.  I
>>can now only use the firewire port to change the channel on the STB.
>>There was a discussion about this recently, check out
>>www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users and search using "firewire"
>>and "time warner".
>>

>I actually did read that thread and was hoping that wasn't the case in 
>greensboro, nc.  i think i've read everything there is on the list with the 
>word firewire or 1394 in it, and most everything on the net with google 
>using the words firewire+mythtv or firewire+time warner etc, not that i 
>understand it all.

>so tonight i thought i would give it another shot.  i hooked up the 
>sa4250hdc again, and it didn't work as i expected.  then i decided to 
>delete all of my tuners and add them, and lo and behold, firewire started 
>working again.  i was able to tune all of the hd channels that i get over 
>qam and a few that i can only get through the cable box such as mojo, tnt, 
>hdnet, and inhd.

>i had high hopes for espnhd this time, but when i tried tuning to the 
>channel, i got the same "Warning, no input...".  i changed back to a 
>different channel on the cable box and all the other channels still 
>worked...just not espn.  so i exited live tv and went back in and tuned to 
>espnhd right off the bat and i saw just a second or two of the football 
>game and then it froze.  after the freeze, i haven't been able to get 
>firewire on any channel.  after the wife finishes watching her shows i'll 
>try deleting all of the tuners and adding them back again to see what i can 
>see.  seems like i am able to get all of the hd channels minus espn via 
>firewire as of now, but it is very touchy.  i'll report back when i can 
>test it again.

i know it's bad form to reply my own email but i wanted to give an update to 
my time warner firewire situation.  after stopping all mythbackends, 
deleting all capture cards, and adding them back again, i was once again 
able to capture via firewire.  i am able to receive all of the hd channels 
that are available through time warner except for espn hd.  i can also 
receive many digital cable channels but i didn't take the time to write down 
exactly which ones but i can if someone really wants to know.

a strange thing i noticed is that when i run firewire_tester it fails every 
time for p2p and for broadcast, but i can record using test-mpeg2 and 
through mythtv.  i also noticed that even though mythtv tells me that the 
sa4250hdc is not supported by any channel changer, when i change channels in 
mythtv, the channel on the cable box is changed but not to the right one.  i 
didn't get far enough to set up an ir blaster, but i assume once the script 
for the ir blaster is in place, mythtv will no longer try to change the 
channel via firewire for the sa4250hdc.

so in the end, i will have to stick with time warner's really awful sa8300 
to supplement mythtv.  maybe one day we'll have a cable card hd capture 
card.  many are of the opinion that this will never happen for linux but one 
can only hope.

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