Derek has posted Installment 007 of The Custom Integrator Show, this week looking CableCARD in Windows Media Center and we aldo talk about international standards like DVB-T and DVB-S
The Custom Integrator Show Installment 007 is live. In this installment, we finally start to dive into one of the more troublesome aspects of the Windows Media Center ecosystem – Digital Cable Tuners (DCTs). The more common nomenclature is OpenCable Unidirectional Receiver (OCUR), but Microsoft now refers to them as DCTs (while Niveus references their products containing DCTs as DCRs – Digital Cable Receivers). Many integrators criticize Microsoft for their CableCARD implementation and find it to be cumbersome and convoluted. Putting it into perspective, however, one must realize that Microsoft provides the only PC-based platform that even supports CableCARDs (mostly because of the end-to-end protected path that Windows Vista affords). They just have to live by the rules set up by CableLabs and its constituents, which really are a nightmare when you actually dig down into the guts of them. Granted, it is not exactly easy to get it up and running well, but if it is installed and configured properly, it does actually work – and work well. This installment covers the initial setup and some of the basic steps you need to take as part of ensuring a successful experience. Installment 008 will start to drill down into the technical specifics of the CableCARD pipeline and several steps to take when troubleshooting the platform.
2 thoughts on “Podcast: The Custom Integrator Show Installment 007”
Hi Ian
Great coverage on the various sources available for digital tv.
However I suppose that you are already aware of it but for Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden a lot of people actually uses DVB-C through FloppyDTV DVB-C tunercards with driverbased DVB-T emulation. This setup is very stable, and it does require a valid Subscription card and a conditional access module, but other than that a perfect match with Vista Media Center and W7MCE.
In my system for instance I am using 3 FireDTV tuners, all with Irdeto CA modules and subscriptioncards. I can watch about 110 Digital Cable channels, five of them h.264.
Could you give us a timeline on the firmware update for the ATI DCT which will relax the current DRM restrictions? Also whats the timeline on tuning adapters for SDV which is starting to appear on cable systems accross the country?
There is device for Tivo but only rumors that MS is testing along with ATI a way to use the tuning adapter.
Finally, any word on other cablecard tuners such as the device shown by Ceton or maybe even a new HDHomerun device?
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Hi Ian
Great coverage on the various sources available for digital tv.
However I suppose that you are already aware of it but for Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden a lot of people actually uses DVB-C through FloppyDTV DVB-C tunercards with driverbased DVB-T emulation. This setup is very stable, and it does require a valid Subscription card and a conditional access module, but other than that a perfect match with Vista Media Center and W7MCE.
In my system for instance I am using 3 FireDTV tuners, all with Irdeto CA modules and subscriptioncards. I can watch about 110 Digital Cable channels, five of them h.264.
Could you give us a timeline on the firmware update for the ATI DCT which will relax the current DRM restrictions? Also whats the timeline on tuning adapters for SDV which is starting to appear on cable systems accross the country?
There is device for Tivo but only rumors that MS is testing along with ATI a way to use the tuning adapter.
Finally, any word on other cablecard tuners such as the device shown by Ceton or maybe even a new HDHomerun device?
Thanks
John