[boognish43]

I dont know exactly where to put this question but this seemed close

I just got an HD cable box and Comcast cable for the first time in 5+ years. I know that using xbmc as a pvr with encrypted channels is a pain in the butt(as far as I know at least)
What I want to be able to do is view the output of the box inside xbmc. I dont need xbmc to tune channels as I can just press the cable box remote to do that but I want it to be integrated with xbmc.
I am already annoyed at having to switch inputs on the tv and receiver and the WAF factor is not wanting to use xbmc(which hurts me )

Any ideas on how to get the output of the cable box to play in xbmc?

huge thanks in advance!

[Ned Scott]

firewire? that's about all I know.

[boognish43]

What about FireWire? Could you explain more how I could use this?
Thanks

[ant_thomas]

What outputs does the Cable box have?

[Ned Scott]

In the US it is a law (I think it's still in effect) that all cable boxes have to have a working firewire port on the cable box. Firewire, despite it's age, is still used in a lot of video production and still comes standard on some computers (such as Macs). It's fairly easy to add firewire ports to an existing computer.

A firewire connection to the cable box from a computer can capture the video, as well as provide the computer with a way to change the channel, among other things.

However, the last time I tried to get this to work myself, I didn't find a lot of software/development in this area. It was tricky to get working, and buggy in my setup. This surprises me, and I would think it would be a lot more developed. The last time I looked at this was a few years ago, so maybe things have changed since then.

If firewire doesn't work out or turns out to be too much of a PITA, then I would get a USB tuner card that can accept component video. Component video, despite being analog, will give you a high quality and HD video signal that XBMC will be able to see.

How to actually get that to work in XBMC is something I'm still learning myself, so I'll have to defer to someone else on that.

[boognish43]

What outputs does the Cable box have?

http://i.imgur.com/zm25j.jpg

In the US it is a law (I think it's still in effect) that all cable boxes have to have a working firewire port on the cable box. Firewire, despite it's age, is still used in a lot of video production and still comes standard on some computers (such as Macs). It's fairly easy to add firewire ports to an existing computer.

A firewire connection to the cable box from a computer can capture the video, as well as provide the computer with a way to change the channel, among other things.

However, the last time I tried to get this to work myself, I didn't find a lot of software/development in this area. It was tricky to get working, and buggy in my setup. This surprises me, and I would think it would be a lot more developed. The last time I looked at this was a few years ago, so maybe things have changed since then.

If firewire doesn't work out or turns out to be too much of a PITA, then I would get a USB tuner card that can accept component video. Component video, despite being analog, will give you a high quality and HD video signal that XBMC will be able to see.

How to actually get that to work in XBMC is something I'm still learning myself, so I'll have to defer to someone else on that.

This is very interesting! Firsty thank you for taking the time to explain some of those options! I will need to research some more on both options. Ill post my findings