Kodi Community Forum

I currently have 5 xbmc setups (my linux HTPC, my linux desktop, one linux laptop, one macbook, and one android tablet). I also have Rogers HD Digital Cable with a Motorola HD PVR. From what I understand dealing with digital cable is a B*tch in Canada due to encryption and such.

What I would like to do is set it up in some way where I can access my cable channels through XBMC on the various other devices on my LAN (no remote access because that would eat my bandwidth). If possible I would also like to be able to use an EPG and the live TV interface of XBMC to browse the channel guide and my PVRed programs as the Rogers interface is abysmal. Basically I want to set up XBMC as a settop box running from my existing STB, with my other XBMC devices also running as additional STBs.

I've seen some information on Slingbox, and this seems close to what I want to do but not exactly.

Could anyone recommend a setup that might work or am I completely out of luck due to CRTC politics.

Thanks

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

No ideas?

I've not played with the PVR stuff in XBMC, so I couldn't comment on that end of your puzzle.

But, the only way you're going to get content out of your Rogers box is through the video outputs into some kind of capture card on a PC. Rogers channels are all encrypted, so a tuner card wont work on digital cable, as I understand it. Record the stream (maybe this is where the XBMC PVR stuff comes in) and find a way to share it around. It does mean only a single channel and limited flexibility.

Controlling the Rogers box is going to be either through the remote (I know, duh!), or possibly through the Rogers TV Home edition android app on your tablet. I don't know of another way to directly interface to change channels.

Use Mythtv and either a HDPVR (if you want HD) or any linux compatible analogue card if you can make do with SD [1].

Unfortunately you will have to have an STB and capture device for each channel you want to record (ie 3 channels simultaneously = 3 STBs.)

This is the price of dealing with a company that will only sell you encrypted channels.

[1] But preferably one like the PVR-150 which compresses to mpeg2 in hardware.

Thanks for the responses...seems that I'm severely limited by the corporate greed of Rogers

Indeed. There may be some other options. I know in the US at least some channels are free OTA, those are far easier to capture.