[kaczman]

Hello all,

Long time lurker. I have been looking at building an XBMC for three or four years now for my ultimate home theater set up. I finally bought my own house, and Flush wall mounted a 60" LG Plasma. I have flush in ceiling and inwall pioneer speakers with a subwoofer behind the couch, and an RF Harmony to control my components behind the wall. The setup with blurays is awesome, and my final step is building an XBMC to work with my cable.




I just signed up for HD Via Time Warner Cable, which comes with a set top HD box to get the HD channels. Ive done some searching, and I cant quite find a way to integrate my HD Box w/ XBMC to be my DVR. I opted not to go with Dish Network because it wouldnt interface with XBMC. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[outatouch0]

Sounds like you need a TV Tuner card of some kind that is compatible with the signal or connections from the cable box. I have one but I just use it to tune in Over The Air (OTA) broadcasts which I hardly ever watch. It is PVR capable I believe. Hauppauge seems to be a widely recomended brand. Check the link in my signature for my hardware. This one may or may not be right for you IDK.
The hardware support forum might be a good place to ask too.

[kaczman]

I wasnt aware there was a tuner card that could decode HD from a coax cable stream. Is is what you have?

[kaczman]

also, where is the hardware fourm?

[outatouch0]

I wasnt aware there was a tuner card that could decode HD from a coax cable stream. Is is what you have?

I do not know if mine can or can't because I didn't select it for that task. I am by no means an expert on these tuner cards but it is something you can look into.
The hardware forum is the second to last forum on the xbmc community forum page http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=112

[kaczman]

My cable provider does off a CableCard for $2.50 a month. Any idea which device to accept it?

[outatouch0]

if TW is offering a TV tuner card for your PC you can rest assured it is supplied by the lowest bidder and likely to have limitations on its use. What software comes with it so you can record your shows?

[waldo22]

@outatouch,

A "CableCard" is not a tuner card, but a PCMCIA "access" card similar to a Satellite smart card or a SIM card for cell phones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cablecard

It allows you to "bring your own" tuner card or cable box and still access digital cable, but it can be difficult to find hardware that supports them.

There aren't many commercially available cards out there. The only ones that I know of are -

Ceton InfiniTV http://www.cetoncorp.com/products.php

HD HomeRun Prime
http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/prime/

Hauppage's new one for Windows 7 MCE only:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/d...r2650.html

I'm not sure how this will work with DRM and such...

Personally, I use an R5000-HD box from nextcomwireless with Dish Network.

There is a patch to make it work with MythTV, and I'm looking into making one for MediaPortal.

Aside from those choices, your only real option is to get an analog capture card, but that's lossy.

-Wes