[mythtv-users] AT&T U-Verse / MythTV ?

[Calvin Harrigan]

Robert Johnston wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 08:42, Tony Brummett<brummett at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 7:46 PM, Eric Giblock<eric.giblock at denora.com> wrote:
>>> I know this topic was posted a bunch in the past, but wondering if anyone
>>> recently got myth tv working with the stream that comes from the at&t uverse
>>> 2wire unit ?
>> It's (probably) not possible.  All the important communication between
>> the STBs, the 2wire box and the headend is encrypted.
>>
>> I looked into it a few months ago.  When you change the channel on the
>> STB, it sends a control message of some kind to the headend and a
>> moment later the stream of UDP packets with the video data starts up.
>> Each time you change the channel, the destination address for those
>> UDP packets changes.  Neither mplayer or vlc were able to play the
>> video or audio.  Occasionally, mplayer would think the stream was
>> h.264 video and AAC audio, but still wouldn't display anything - it's
>> all encrypted.
>>
>> One interesting detail is that each STB sends an HTTP Notify packet in
>> the clear to a common multicast address every few seconds, with
>> details about which stream (channel) it's listening to at that moment.
> 
> They're using the same system as Sasktel here in Canada, with one
> minor adjustment - They have every channel "protected".
> 
> I say "protected" in quotes because 4/5ths of the data is transmitted
> in the clear. It's just that one 5th of the data is transmitted as "FF
> FF FF FF FF FF..." in the main multicast stream, meaning the "missing"
> data is coming from elsewhere. It's possible the reply to the HTTP
> Notify packet is the "missing" data, which the STB then re-assembles
> as necessary. Apart from that "protection" mechanism, however, the
> data is entirely in the clear.
> 
> Here on Sasktel only the premuim channels (Peachtree, HBO, Movie
> Network(s)) are "protected" in this way, all others are sent "in the
> clear", and if you are not subscribed to the channel in question you
> can't get to the stream at all.
> 
> If someone on UVerse could figure out where the extra data is coming
> from (which is allowed by the DMCA for reasons of interoperability
> IIRC), I think it should be fairly easy to extend the IPTV Recorder
> class to re-assemble the stream.


What's really sad is that they have full control at the top end as to 
what we can and cannot see, but still want to control how we 
watch/record at home.  Imagine being able have Mythtv connect directly 
to the home office to select what stream to be sent and record it 
directly as regular tcp/udp traffic.  A guy can dream right?