[mythtv-users] Wrote Script to Power on Cable Box

[Preston Crow]

On 06/25/12 10:40, jr wrote:
> I have been having trouble with my Cable Box shutting off on a weekly
> basis.  Usually at some point during the weekend so that Sunday or
> Monday night shows are lost.  After a bit of research, I finally sat
> down last night and wrote a script to cat from my HDPVR into a file
> for 5 secs, then check the file size.  If its zero, then I use my
> channel change script to power on the tuner. Is that going to work
> with any type of reliability?

What method are you using to control your cable box?  If you are using 
an IR blaster, then that may be the best you can do--keep toggling power 
until you get data.  If you are using firewire, then it should let you 
send a status command to check if the power is on, and you should have 
separate power on and off commands, as well as a toggle.  Of course, 
some boxes have firmware that doesn't support all of those commands, so 
you might be out of luck (e.g., if you have a Verizon Cisco box, the 
status command will work, but you'll need an IR blaster to send the 
power command).

If your cable box supports it, firewire is usually the best way to 
control it.