Time Warner Cable

[blaze818]

ok, let me give you a little background. i wanted to upgrade to a DVR through time warner (in Dallas TX) and they told me that with their DVR you can only record the channel that you are watching. which i think is total horse shit. so i wanted to build my own HTPC, so that i can put do more...way more with my new DVR. the thing i have a question about is the fact that with my setup right now (digital cable box) time warner has an A and a B. will i be able to solve this problem by getting the ir blaster so that i can utilize all of the channels that time warner cable has to offer me? or am i only gonna be able to with with part of it. all in all my end goal is to have access to record all of the possible channels that imte warner offers me. any input would be great. thanks a lot for your help guys

The model number for the cable box is: motorola dac-224
and i am using 1 Dual-tuner Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE (PCI)

[Joe The Dude]

Originally Posted by blaze818

the thing i have a question about is the fact that with my setup right now (digital cable box) time warner has an A and a B.

To be honest, I haven't seen a Cable TV Installation like that since the 80's.

You need to call Time Warner and ask them the following:
Witch Analog Channels are on the "A Line", and witch analouge channels are on the "B Line"?

If you are lucky, they'll have all of the analog channels on one or the other, and not split between both lines.

Also, you might want to ask them if you can have a tech come out and change your install so that you don't have to deal with the A and B lines (if possible).

As you may already know, the PVR-500's onboard tuners (the coax connection) can only get the unscrambled analog channels, but you can bypass them by going with the Two Cable Boxes and a Stereo IR Blaster route, or using a Serial Cable, if the non-DVR Box they'll rent ya supports that...

[StevenPr]

Dallas cable is split between the 2 lines, about 40-45 channels each. The digital converter makes it appear as 1 cable by starting the B side around 62. Digital channels begin at 120.

I use the Motorola DC-2224 with the serial cable to record and it works good.

Steve

[mlomker]

An IR blaster will change the channel on the cable box and record whatever the box is 'watching' since you'll be using either svideo or composite video output from the box into your tuner card. You'll probably want more than one cable box, otherwise you won't be able to watch one program and record another (or record two programs when you aren't home and if you have a dual-tuner TV card). In my opinion it is unwise to not buy a dual-tuner card...

[jhanan]

Hi,

I have the DVR from TW and it does not work as you say. It has no problem recording 2 channels at the same time. If fact, it will record 2 shows and let you watch a 3rd as well. This is the downside to BTV. BTV can control only one cable box. So BTV can only record one digital cable channel at a time. I wish there was a way around this. I'm seaching for a digital cable card capability. In some ways, going to BTV is a step back from the TW DVR. I do have multipule analog, but really, analog is the past, digital and hdtv is the future. I recieve next to 0 channels on the air for hdtv - they are all only on dig cable. I'm stucc. The last think I want to do is rent 3 dig cable boxes from TW and find some solution for multi-external control (not supported by BTV).

[blaze818]

jhanan thanks for the update, i will be sure to give them a call and ask to talk to someone who knows a little more about what i want to do. i hate it when you call and end up talking to the dumbest person the works at TW. and be sure to keep us updated in the case that you do find something with multi external control.

[mlomker]

Originally Posted by jhanan

This is the downside to BTV. BTV can control only one cable box. So BTV can only record one digital cable channel at a time. I wish there was a way around this.

That is not correct. The USB-UIRT is capable of having three separate zones, thereby controlling up to three cable boxes that are on the same IR frequency. If your cable boxes can change their IR channel (most cannot) then you could have even more.

[tscales]

Yeah, I was surprised by that answer, since the discussion of multiple cable boxes and using zones is so common here.

I run two cable boxes with one USB-UIRT with no problem.