[zerobyte]

Good evening;

I have a number of basic questions that I hope the community would be kind enough to help me with. The first is essential, as it is the premise that I base my other questions on:

1. I would like to connect a tuner to my htpc and stream the tv channels to another pc on my home network using xmbc; is this possible?

If the answer is yes; awesome. Xmbc is the solution I have been looking for. I have a few more questions but have to provide some info first.

My cable provider is comcast. Apparently they find it necessary to encrypt all channels since they switched to digital. As such, I have a DTA (which I believe can only tune 1 channel at a time, and only channels 1-99 without paying monthly for a cablebox/cablecard).

2. Which TV tuner would you recommend? I would imagine since the DTA can only tune 1 channel, I would only need a solo (vs a dual) tuner (unless there is some benefit to adding an antenna on a second tuner and tuning clearQAM channels? Not sure if I would get anything on those channels im not already getting through comcast). My HTPC has a free PCIe slot, otherwise id be looking at usb options.

3. Would I be able to change the channel on the DTA through XMBC? Or would I need to actually change the tv with the remote provided manually.

4. I run win 7 x64 ultimate; however I am no slouch with vmware or linux, amd dont mind running XMBCbuntu if there is a serious advantage. Otherwise I would rather just run xmbc on windows.

Thank you for reading, and any insight you are willing to provide. Please let me know if I have omitted something or more info is needed.

~zerobyte

[rocketpants]

1. Using XBMC as a PVR is possible but only in the latest beta release of frodo (the next version). The current stable version of XBMC (v11 - eden) does not have PVR built in. Check this and this. Note that this is still beta so you would expect to have some bugs in it. If you want stability it may be worth waiting for the final release.

I can't help you much with the others but you'll probably find the answers to some of your questions by starting with these two links and then exploring the forums from there.

[Ned Scott]

Hey Zerobyte, I also have Comcast and those little DTA boxes, and I assume it would be possible to hook it up with some kind of IR blaster that would change the channel on the box when you changed it in XBMC, but I don't know how one would go about that or what PVR software would support it. However, Comcast tells me (and I'm about to find out when I go pick it up tomorrow morning) that the first CableCARD does not have a rental fee, even if you already have a Comcast branded DVR that has a cableCARD inside it. I've also just received a HDhomerun Prime, and apparently Comcast doesn't block any channels except for "premium" ones like HBO and Showtime.

I'll update this thread if it all works out tomorrow, but from what I read from other people, it should work with this setup.

[zerobyte]

1. Using XBMC as a PVR is possible but only in the latest beta release of frodo (the next version). The current stable version of XBMC (v11 - eden) does not have PVR built in. Check this and this. Note that this is still beta so you would expect to have some bugs in it. If you want stability it may be worth waiting for the final release.

I can't help you much with the others but you'll probably find the answers to some of your questions by starting with these two links and then exploring the forums from there.

Hmm. Thank you for the info, both links were very helpful! I think Nedd may have changed my approach a little with the info he mentioned regarding cable cards..

Hey Zerobyte, I also have Comcast and those little DTA boxes, and I assume it would be possible to hook it up with some kind of IR blaster that would change the channel on the box when you changed it in XBMC, but I don't know how one would go about that or what PVR software would support it. However, Comcast tells me (and I'm about to find out when I go pick it up tomorrow morning) that the first CableCARD does not have a rental fee, even if you already have a Comcast branded DVR that has a cableCARD inside it. I've also just received a HDhomerun Prime, and apparently Comcast doesn't block any channels except for "premium" ones like HBO and Showtime.

I'll update this thread if it all works out tomorrow, but from what I read from other people, it should work with this setup.

Thanks for the info. I had no idea the first cablecard was free, but its got me thinking about changing my approach completely. Will Comcast block these premium channels if I subscribe to them? IE I get them on my regular comcast cable box?

Btw; I looked into the cablecard a bit further. Turns out Comcast will actually credit you for using your own device. Check it out, I get credited $3 a month (whereas I thought Id have to pay for a cablecard - Ha!)

http://www.comcast.com/equipmentpolicy/

[Ned Scott]

I guess "block" isn't the right word. The still come in, but they just don't work with XBMC or any of the PVR backends that we use. You can actually use those channels via HDhomerun Prime if you use Windows Media Center. It won't affect your other comcast boxes at all.

[LastCoder]

xbmc doesn't provide a tv tuner software itself, it connects to tv servers via addons. So, if you want TV streams, choose one of the tv servers like tvheadend, mediaportal server etc. .. to decrypt the signals you'll need a special tv tuner with CI slot .. unfortunately it's not allowed to talk about other ways of - even legal and expedient - decrypting, but simply google for easymouse/smargo, OSCam and so on, than you will find a very flexible solution for you problems, for example there is no need for a tv tuner with ci slot ..

[Ned Scott]

xbmc doesn't provide a tv tuner software itself, it connects to tv servers via addons. So, if you want TV streams, choose one of the tv servers like tvheadend, mediaportal server etc. .. to decrypt the signals you'll need a special tv tuner with CI slot .. unfortunately it's not allowed to talk about other ways of - even legal and expedient - decrypting, but simply google for easymouse/smargo, OSCam and so on, than you will find a very flexible solution for you problems, for example there is no need for a tv tuner with ci slot ..

CableCARD can already be legally decrypted, as already noted in this thread. It's not the same thing as DVB, CI, OSCam, etc.