LinuxMCE Forums

General => Users => Topic started by: random0000 on January 07, 2008, 04:51:33 PM

Title: Question about PC with cablecard support
Post by: random0000 on January 07, 2008, 04:51:33 PM
Hi all,

Currently there are several low cost (<$1500) PCs availble that you can get with the ATI digital tuner that supports cablecards.  As far as I can tell only Vista can be run on these machines.

My question - is there any way this type of system can be leveraged/integrated within the LinuxMCE environment?  Can you stream from the Vista machine into a LinuxMCE system?  Any other options?

Thanks for any info!
Title: Re: Question about PC with cablecard support
Post by: tschak909 on January 07, 2008, 06:58:17 PM
no.

those systems are incredibly closed off. don't even bother with them... CABLEcard is fundamentally fucked.

-Thom
Title: Re: Question about PC with cablecard support
Post by: random0000 on January 07, 2008, 07:50:28 PM
Unfortunately it seems this type of system is only one that can stream digital cable to other media servers (XBOX 360, PS3, other PCs, etc...).  If it is possible for the XBOX to appear as a device for streaming, it seems like LinuxMCE could be made to receive such streams as well and then make it available to the rest of the system.

Of course this statement doesn't reflect the complexity of accomplishing it ;-)
Title: Re: Question about PC with cablecard support
Post by: tschak909 on January 07, 2008, 07:54:48 PM
dude, I know about as much as there can be to know about CableCARD without an NDA....

The whole standard is deliberately crippled. The cable companies DO NOT WANT enthusiasts to be able to record content off cable. It was designed to satisfy government regulations.

you would basically have to hack an entire OCUR authentication layer to deal with it, this would be breaking DMCA.

Go do some research.

-Thom
Title: Re: Question about PC with cablecard support
Post by: ddamron on January 08, 2008, 01:54:18 AM
Thom,

Dude, ROTFLMAO!

Talk about BLUNT!

random0000, Don't take that the wrong way, it's not a flame...
We've been down these roads many times before, and it's just frustrating...
especially when (as in this case) we can't really do anything about it..
As Thom suggested, if you do more research into the whole CableCARD infrastructure, you'll see just how hard it is.

Regards,

Dan


Title: Re: Question about PC with cablecard support
Post by: blackoper on January 08, 2008, 09:07:33 AM
just get an R5000-hd mod done to either an hd satellite receiver or a DCP-501 if you have cable. You'd need a lower power windows box as an intermidiary but it's still the best way