On-Demand: What's the State of the Art?

[Tomahawk51]

I realize there is discussion on this forum, so perhaps a simple YES or NO (and bonus of a lead) might save me some energy in parsing through all this:

(e.g. http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55645

Can I get SageTV to access my <Comcast> ON-Demand content (headless server connected to headless cable box)?

That is, can I rig up something that lets me sit at my HD200, dial in a movie, and watch it?

I am thinking that there are now iPAD apps to control the cable box, and maybe there is something I can do with that. Then again, I read of LMGestion Remote, but haven't groked that yet.

Thanks for any quick input. Also if anyone has experience to say "don't waste your time!"

[Fuzzy]

I think MKANet has had a setup working for a while. not sure if he still uses it though.. Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/etc have pretty much make cable VoD service obsolete in my mind...

[wbarber69]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk51

I realize there is discussion on this forum, so perhaps a simple YES or NO (and bonus of a lead) might save me some energy in parsing through all this:

(e.g. http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55645

Can I get SageTV to access my <Comcast> ON-Demand content (headless server connected to headless cable box)?

That is, can I rig up something that lets me sit at my HD200, dial in a movie, and watch it?

I am thinking that there are now iPAD apps to control the cable box, and maybe there is something I can do with that. Then again, I read of LMGestion Remote, but haven't groked that yet.

Thanks for any quick input. Also if anyone has experience to say "don't waste your time!"

You will have to use some other method of sending the remote feedback to the cable box. It may be possible to hack together a method for directv since all the controls are available through http requests. But it would require someone who could
A: build plugins.
B: has tons of time to waste on something that only benefits directv users.
C: Has Directv
D: knows all the http commands to send back to the dtv box.

Problems to overcome:

The plugin would have to be able to interpret your vod commands somehow and know that you want to send up/down/left/right/enter/exit/play to vod and not sagetv.(unless these items could hook to menu buttons that could pop up on screen)

The tuner would be recording the whole time your browsing through content.

Multiple tuners.




I personally just use VOD this way:

I pick what I want to watch and see if its coming on one of the cinema channels. I order the movie and set the DVR to record the purchased movie at a predetermined channel and time. I set SageTV to record the same channel.

Sometimes this gets screwed up so I can use my DTV remote app on my iphone to select the recorded movie from the DVR at a later time, setup a timed recording and start the movie again and record.

[IVB]

stupid question: Does Comcast have unique content via on-demand that netflix/huluplus/amazon instant video doesn't? Those are pretty simple to get working.