[ale] trying to get video capture working on Ubuntu or Mint, no luck

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Michael Nolan <michaeldnolan at gmail.com> wrote:

>On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 4:42 AM, Ron Frazier wrote:
>> I have a Comcast Explorer 8300 HD cable box by Scientific Atlanta
>with a
>> firewire port.
>
>Comcast *requires* a digital box now, even for basic, (formally
>non-scrambled) channels. Their magic inside the box is proprietary and
>all you can get out of the video-out is the channel you have selected
>with their cable box.
>
>You can't (that I'm aware of) access the recording on the drives
>without running it back through their box (ie. "My DVR" or whatever
>they call it) and out the video-out.
>
>You can install a bigger drive than comes standard, and I *think* you
>can add a second drive, but the digital box has to control it all for
>it to work.
>
>This is all from foggy memory of things I used to do, because when
>Comcast forced me to get their digital basic boxes several years ago,
>I plugged it in for about 15 minutes before all their *free* boxes,
>along my old TV's and video recording equipment went into the
>dumpster. If I recall, it took like 1.5 seconds to step from on
>channel to another. (I think I timed it), and the boxes contained no
>guide.
>
>So I went from 5 cable boxes to one (so I can drone to news channels),
>signed up for the fasted internet connection they offer, networked my
>house, paid for access to Newsgroups and got a VPN provider.
>
>The rest I will leave the reader to imagine... I no longer record
>stuff I want to watch.
>
>I don't have a problem paying them for their content. I do have a HUGE
>problem with them controlling the way I want to use what I have paid
>for.
>
>...and I'm by no means an expert, I could be wrong about how the
>converters work...YMMV

Hi Michael,

I knew you couldn't retrieve content files from the box.  I wish I could but, I'm OK just recording whatever the box is playing.  I read some stuff about people getting video from the firewire, at least for unencrypted programs.  I'd like to do that since it gives the highest quality.  Otherwise, I guess I'll have to capture from the svideo output, which will turn HD into SD.  Here's some links I was looking at, but it won't work for Win 64 or Linux which is what's on my desktop.  I have not yet proven that I can get firewire video from my box.  I may try this procedure on my old Win XP laptop.  It's the only other machine I have that has firewire.

http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire/
http://www.rickysays.com/record-shows-comcast-dvr

Sincerely,

Ron


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Ron Frazier
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