Progress on digital cable

I reported last night the trouble we’ve been having getting sTeVo ready for the Comcast transition to digital cable. I realized today that the date is even sooner than I thought – March 15 instead of April 15. Silly me.

Pressure!

After learning that all but local channels will be encrypted, it became imperative to find a solution that involved allowing sTeVo to change the set-top box’s (STB) channels via an infrared transmitter. I realized that while the digital converter (a Pace DC50x) is not currently supported by MythTV via an IR blaster, the STB is. The STB Comcast  sent is a Motorola DCT700, which has a direct set of guidelines available for use with an IR blaster and MythTV [1].

I then needed an IR blaster – a device that can transmit IR remote codes to a receiver. I settled on a product from Command IR [2], a company that explicitly builds hardware for MythTV boxes. The cost of their hardware was as much, including shipping, as a comparable Microsoft product.

I’ll let you know how this goes. I expect the blaster to arrive in 2-3 business days. Then I will set it up on sTeVo, and see if it can control the DCT700. If it can, then it’s time to switch to digital cable and setup sTeVo to change channels on the STB.

If this doesn’t work, then I’ll be unable to record channels above 30 for some time.

[1] Motorola_DCT700_Channel_Change_Script – Community Ubuntu Documentation

[2] https://www.commandir.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/