[mythtv-users] Time Warner Cable

[Kichigai Mentat]

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On Mar 30, 2006, at 09.48, Yeraze.27524549 at bloglines.com wrote:

> I'm currently working on specs for a future MythTV build, and I'm  
> relatively
> new to the whole thing. I have time warner's digital cable, and  
> wanted to
> know if anyone here has any experience with it?
>
> 1) Is there a PCI card
> (Like the PVR250) that I can use to bypass my set-top box?  I don't  
> particularly
> care about VOD or any of that junk, just want to keep the higher  
> digital channels.

No way, no how. At the moment, there is no digital cable tuner that  
I'm aware of, and most of the digital cable channels you are talking  
about are encrypted, so that only the cable box can decode it.  
Hopefully, in the future, when CableCARD becomes a standard, this  
should be fixed. But for now, you're out of luck. (I'm kinda in the  
same boat myself, with ComCast in MN)

>
> 2) Is there any way to connect to the set-top box "reliably"?  I  
> have a
> "PACE 510 TWC", which seems to be this model: http:// 
> www.pacemicro.com/corporate/products/prodinfo.asp?PID=DC510
> , and it has a Serial Port & A USB port on the back.  I can't find  
> any information
> on the net about them, other than the Serial port is for diagnostics.

Uhh, you'd need to tell us what your actual cable box model is. Most  
cable companies tend to have a box with a serial port that can be  
used to change the channels, but some companies refuse to do it  
(because they figure you can just use an IR blaster) or don't know  
how (there's a thread in here where a guy talks about how the techs  
were poorly trained, and no one knew how. Fortunately, he managed to  
find what tech needed on the internet)

>
> 3)
> How reliable is the IR-Relay stuff?  I had thought about using an  
> IRBlaster
> (http://www.irblaster.info/) to do it, but it seems this unit uses  
> a non-standard
> protocol and may require something different (based on this Tivo  
> forum post:
> http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/history/topic/103589-1.html)

It's pretty reliable, unless you plan on bombarding your cable box  
with additional infrared light. In all fairness, it's not the blaster  
that handles the protocol, it's the software. All that blaster is is  
basically an IR light bulb, and all your computer needs to do is turn  
it on and off. MythTV relies on LIRC, and so far, I've never heard  
anyone complain about it. TiVo $B!b(B MythTV.

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