[mythtv-users] Time Warner Cable

[William]

> 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.

Time Warner does not offer a pci card receiver. You are stuck controlling
the set top box.
> 
> 
> 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=D
C510
, 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.

AFAIK the only control is from a IR blaster.


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) 


There seems to be a mixed bag when it comes to controlling stuff with their
blaster. It will not work with all models especially stuff that runs on a
non standard bitrate like Dishnetwork. For a little bit more money a much
more reliable solution would be the MyBlaster Serial from www.my.tv It is
pretty much plug and play and does NOT use lirc at all. There is a nice perl
script interface for linux.