Moving to Digital Cable - NO IR BLASTING, etc.

[joesh]

Hello,

I have been using sageTV for .. two years now ? Something like that. I have always been using it with plain old cable TV - no set top box, just plug the cable(s) from my wall into my PVR-350(s) and that's that.

In the meantime, I have watched friends and family that either have Tivos or HTPCs and also have set top boxes, and their lame, frenzied and hapless interactions with their stupid IR blasters. Shows not recording because the channel doesn't change, recalibrating and testing over and over again everytime someone bumps the TV stand / cabinet, and of course, the general knowledge that their setup is a lame and stupid hack.

So my question is, what is the _right way_ to change channels from a sage PC to a digi-cable set top box ?

I will be using Time Warner in Minneapolis, and I have been told that my options for HD set top boxes are:

Scientific Atlanta SA8300 (has a PVR, but I won't use it)
SA3250

and for non HD, which is fine for plugging into sage, since sage doesn't record HD anyway:

SA2000
SA2100

Which do you recommend, and what method (USB, serial port, etc.) will I be using to change channels ?

If none of these boxes allow for wired controlling, are any of them modifiable ? I am happy to take my cable box(es) and mail them into some shop to have them modded to accept serial/USB control, etc.

Any additional comments / suggestions ?

Thanks.

[Kanati]

I'm perfectly happy with my ir blaster, but I'm sure most will tell you that the serial port is the most accurate method.

[dvd_maniac]

You can use a USB-UIRT and purchase some an emitter that you can tape to your STB. It would take a hell of a lot more to bump it out of place then.
The USB-UIRT can be found on Sage's Store and the Emitter can be found HERE .

Plus then you can control more than one STB.

[joesh]

Yeah. I guess I don't see the "hack" element of this method being reduced by introducing tape to the equation

Seriously - I am not looking for ways to improve the IR blaster method, or make it more reliable. Even if it was perfectly reliable, I just don't like it and do not plan to use it.

Given the Scientific Atlanta models above that I have access to, which ones either:

a) have a serial or USB/firewire port that can be used for wired control (isn't there some firewire channel changing/control standard now ?)

b) can be sent to some hardware shop and altered to have something like that ?

Thanks.

[Stobor]

My digital cable company (charter) provided a motorola box with a serial port, however the serial port was disabled. So even if those boxs come wired for USB or serial control the cable provider can still render that option inoperable. I think the only people that can answer this for you is the cable company themselfs.

I know your not looking for IR blaster stuff but I was in your shoes and grudingly had to accept it also. I just have my cable box turned backward (faceplate to the back) and shut inside my AV cabinet with the IR blaster right up against in face plate coming in from the rear. I have no problems at all.

[blade]

I can understand not wanting to use an IR blaster, but I don't see how using an IR emmiter as it was designed to be used and using the software as it was designed to be used can be considered a "hack".

b) can be sent to some hardware shop and altered to have something like that ?

If you're renting the box from the cable company I would think having someone modify their cable box would be a bad idea.

[timmmoore]

Take a look at this thread http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ead.php?t=9288. They talk about recording and channel change via firewire.

[joesh]

Ok. I gotcha.

I really did think that the adoption numbers for Tivos and other PVRs, not to mention sage/WMCE/etc. were high enough that this problem wouldn't exist anymore. 2-3 years ago it seemed ... not reasonable, but at least understandable that lame hacks like IR blaster were necessary ... at this stage of the game though ... I would think a set top box that did not support a tivo or other box changing its channels would be akin to a mobile phone without bluetooth, or a PC without an ethernet port.

Whatever.

So what about taking the internals of the IR receiver in the set top box, and wiring them straight to the PC, bypassing the IR receiver itself ? That is, the set top box _will think_ it is being controlled by remote control, through the IR port, but in reality, those signals are coming to it hardwired from your PC ...shouldn't be too hard to find those leads on the PCB in the set top box and solder some leads from them ...

Comments ?

[salsbst]

STB manufacturers and cable companies want to sell/lend their own PVRs. By making the STB a slave to a separate PVR, they are marginalized. That's why they do stupid stuff like disabling wired channel changing features.

Oh, and about soldering onto the IR leads of your STB, now *that's* a hack.

[Mahoney]

Do a search on the web for your set top box - it's possible that some 3rd party has done something similar. In the UK we have a set top box called a Sky digibox for satellite. It has a way to control it via an input (an RF input I think...) so that they can sell a product to allow you to change the channel in a neighbouring room. I found someone who has built a cable that connects the PC's serial port to the RF input to do this via a simple PC program & is selling them.

http://www.skyeye.force9.co.uk/skyeyepc.htm