Looking for advice on firewire control of STB's

[pawn]

Hi, I hope nobody minds me asking when I know there's a lot of information on this forum on the subject (too much maybe), but I'll ask anyway:

I currently have two satellite receivers, both controlled by IR blaster and I'm looking for a better solution. I would also like to get HD content from them, but one issue at a time.

It seems I have two options:

Option 1: upgrade my two Bell Expressvu 3100 receivers to their HD 6141 boxes. For anyone that doesn't know, Expressvu uses the same boxes as Dishnet with different numbers (I think the 3100 model is the Dishnet 301 set top box). Anyway, the 6141 receiver has ethernet and USB2.0 ports on the back, but seemingly no firewire. The question is, does anyone have any experience with this receiver? Can it be controlled somehow? It doesn't appear Bell has any other options, so I may be forced into Option 2....

Option 2: switch to cable. My cable provider has several options, namely the Motorola 6200, 6412 III and 6416 (these last two are DVR's, which obviously I don't need, but I guess I can just use them as regular boxes). I've seen some posts about firewire contolling these or similar Motorola boxes. Is this correct? I can make use of this receiver to control with firewiring using the instruction in the extremely large firewire thread?

Are there any other issues involved?

Sorry to be dense, but on this subject, I am.

Thanks.

[dcardellini]

Here is some more background on Firewire:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...4#post12882514

and

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post12886321

The original post is a bit dated on options to get HD into your system. Everyone is waiting for the new Hauppauge HD-PVR which should take the HD off the component outputs of any cable or satellite STB and record.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32027