Before I build this thing I just want to be sure I'll be able to record HBO in addition to off air signals. I don't have the HD cable box yet so i don't know what connections/capabilities it's going to have. (Los Angeles SFV, Adelphia Cable)

If i use the PC3000 card from PCDTV it only wants an RF input. Might my cable box have an RF output, something like old school VCRs outputting to channel 3? Can that go into the Myth box? Is there a different capture card that'll record a component signal from the cable box?

Thanks in advance!

We just started enjoying HD this week! It's fantastic, but were used to our tivo getting us past the commercials.

The only way to record HBO HD is through firewire. if your cable box does not have firewire you will not be able to do it end of story. The 3000 cannot and willnot ever be able to record HBO HD.

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Xsecrets

It's pretty unlikely that you'll be able to record HBO on HDTV. Sorry. Hollywood is determined to take away your recording rights, and right now no one at FCC much cares about consumer rights.

The deal is this: You can only get HBO HD on cable or sattelite. Sattelite has no recording path for HD signals, so your out of luck there. Cable does, but they encrypt their "premium content" channels so you can't get them from the firewire port of the cable box, nor can you receive them directly with your pcHDTV card.

I'm not optimistic that the situation will change for the better. I'd advise you to enjoy broadcast TV and show HBO what you think by voting with your dollars.

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actually on my comcast hd cable box I can at this moment record any channel that I have paid for premium, regular, or hd premium/regular over firewire, however this may or may not last.

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Xsecrets

Nice. I'd keep quiet about that if I were you.

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I just got firewire working with a DCT-6412 and at the moment it appears all I get are analog (2-71) and OTA HD. All of my digital, premium (which includes HBO), and cable HD (like ESPNHD) channels don't work.

It's really irritating that my cable company provides a box with firewire, but cripples it to the point of being almost worthless Looks like I'll have to run s-video to a frame grabber so I can watch the rest of my channels (no HD of course).

Anyways to answer EditMonkey, you've probably got a less than 50/50 chance of getting HBO HD over firewire. I've read a lot of posts from people having experiences similar to mine, and very few having success like Xsecrets.

well this is just theory at this point, because I'm not willing to loose my premium content, but I had lost it at one time, and I believe that the difference was that at that point I didn't have any other video outpus from the cable box. It seemed to come back when I connected the svid output to one of the other inputs on my tv (was just a fluke I did this, I had to cause I wanted to change the display to time instead of channel, but my premium channels over firewire showed back up so I left it connected, I just never go to that input on the tv.) so you might try connecting the svid/composite output to something and see what happens.

then again that may be a comcast specific thing, but it would be worth a shot.

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Xsecrets

I had actually read all of your posts before I started the project. You kind of inspired me since I also have Comcast. Anyways, I saw your other post about hooking up s-video, so I tried that and still no go.

That said, I'm not done playing with it. I'm having terrible reliability problems with my current firewire card (live tv only works about 1 in 5 tries). It's cheapo card with a via chipset. I'm going to upgrade to a nicer card with a different chipset and see if that makes any difference. I've also got unneccesary firewire modules loaded that are maybe causing a conflict (doubtful but possible).

also on my 6200 box there are two firewire ports. one works well the other one not so much, and they go to different firewire nodes as well. so you might try the different ports, also I'm not sure if the 6400 vs the 6200 makes a difference.

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Xsecrets