Cox Digital Cable

[emdoubleyou]

Hello,
I've read a lot about this and have yet to find a straighforward answer.  I'm hoping someone in here might know the answer as surely someone has overcome this.  I'm trying to build a core and want to hook my cable up to it and stream the broadcasts (regardless of however many tuners it takes) to televisions throughout the house.  I'm about to buy a high end server to serve as the core and will most likely will use p4 laptops as the media computers/satellites.  I need to know before sinking a lot of money into the project though if there is a way of getting around the cable card problem.  I talked to cox and they said that I can get broadcast using a cablecard, but just don't know what this will take otherwise.  Is there something that can be hooked up in conjunction with an array of hd tuners and myth tv to obtain my premium channels.  I work away from home and am in the planning phase now.  Thanks for any help in advanced.  I sincerely appreciate it.

[tschak909]

Basically, CableCard is broken. Dead Horse, don't go there. Nothing but huge heaps of pain in all directions. The entire standard was designed specifically to skate around FCC ruler-hand-slaps.

Now that we have that established...

You can get the unencrypted channels in the clear using a HDHomeRun. This is a great option, but it only does the unencrypted channels. There are two tuners in the box, and you can get as many of them as you want, just stick them on the network.

For encrypted channels, the only valid option to stream them in-house is to get one of the original Hauppauge PVR cards (PVR 150/250/500/USB2), and connect it to the cable box's SVIDEO and audio ports. This will stream the cable box through the network. You'll also need a USB UIRT per each media director (and at the core) to handle both A/V gear control, and controlling the cable box. If you have multiple cable boxes at the same location, use the GC-100, and connect multiple IR wires (the IR wires you should be using are the Xantech 286 double emitters), to the unit. You'll also need a xantech connecting block (a simple 4 port will do), so that you can control more than two devices. You will also need to create a device template for your cable box, so that LinuxMCE will know how to control it.

For cable boxes at a TV, Direct A/V can then be used, in addition to connecting the cable box to the tuner, connect the DVI/HDMI ports to the local amplifier and to the TV. (remember that I also said a USB UIRT at each station). Now with this, since LinuxMCE would know how to control your TV, amplifier, and cable box (you made a device template for it, remember?), when you switch to Direct A/V, LinuxMCE will switch the inputs appropriately, and any presses on any remotes and orbiters, will go to the right devices in that room.

-Thom

[emdoubleyou]

That sounds good.  I'll look into doing that with my cable box.  It is supposed to have a dual tuner built into it.  We shall see if this can be exploited somehow.  Thanks for the in depth explanation.  I will see if I can get it to stream both simultaneously into the network.  Not sure.  If so this may be an option and may meet my needs.  Thanks again!!

[skeptic]

A potential alternative to HD Homerun.  Depending on your local provider as well as the cable box itself, you MAY be able to use firewire instead of an svideo card.  In my experiences with Comcast cable, firewire has great quality (including some HD), much better than svideo is capable of.  On the down side, at least with my setup, firewire is still limited to the unencrypted channels and if you try to use svideo and firewire from the same cable box LinuxMCE/Myth has no way to know they are the same device and you'll end up recording the wrong stuff on one device.  In your case it sounds like you don't mind having a bunch of cable boxes so you might want to use a cable box + laptop at a few TVs and configure them for firewire.  Use separate tv lineups for firewire/unencrypted channels and svideo/premium channels, set firewire at a higher priority, and Myth will figure it all out.  Why this route instead of HD Homerun?  If your cable company is like mine, what they transmit on channel 72-4 may be what the cable box/schedules direct thinks is channel 96.  A firewire connection tunes to 96 and the cable box knows where it is.  I believe you can map them, but if you already have (or will have) a number of firewire equipped laptops and cable boxes, you just need to add the cable and do the configuration.

It's also worth noting that Hauppauge is selling their HD PVR unit now.  It encodes component to H.264 on the fly.  It's not supported by LinuxMCE yet, but when it is it can replace the svideo type connection and assuming your cable boxes have component out you'll be able capture HD for all your channels.

[jeangot]

Hello,

just to confirm hat I am successfully using some Cox boxes in Las Vegas to extract TV in high definition via Firewire. The boxes I have working are SA 4250s. It basically is very straight forward and works exactly as explained in the Wiki.
In my area, area we are lucky enough that cox gives access to all channels in unencrpted firewire except premium movie channels like HBO, so there are hundreds of chanels that can be broadcasted in your house that way,including dozens in HD.

I went down the HD Homerun route as well before,and that works just as great except that you're limited to clear channels which in my case was just 5 useful ones (CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox and CW), albeit in HD.

I hope that helps...

Jean

[skeptic]

In my area, area we are lucky enough that cox gives access to all channels in unencrpted firewire except premium movie channels like HBO, so there are hundreds of chanels that can be broadcasted in your house that way,including dozens in HD.

I'm jealous.  Honestly I don't know why cable companies go to the trouble of encrypting non-premium channels, it's the same channels I/we already pay for.  If anything, they should transmit every channel you pay for, premium channels included, in the clear via firewire and HDMI.