Firewire Cable Box Compatibility
From MythTV Official Wiki
This is a compatibility list for using Firewire with Mythtv. If you use firewire and it works (or doesn't) please fill in the table below.
| Date | Name | Cable Co | Cable box | Location | Channels | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m/d/y | My name | My cable co | Cable box | Earth | All! | This is an example. |
| 4/6/07 | t0ny | CableOne | DCT6416 III | Caldwell, Id | All. Except maybe premium channels. | I got every tested channel to work. |
| 4/12/07 | Bill | Comcast | DCT6416III | GR, MI | ALL | This unit is comcast PVR and I have everything working although HD is having quality issues. |
| 5/19/07 | Dave | Comcast | DCT3416 | Portland, Or | Some | Some 5c encrypted HD Channels at the moment... oddly, PBS for one.. |
| 5/19/07 | Josh | Comcast | DCT6200 | Chicago, IL | Broadcast channels + CSPAN | I could get MTVHD when I had a better package (when I first signed-up) |
| 12/02/07 | Matt | Comcast | DCH3200 | Pittsburgh, PA | Standard Cable, Digital (some), HD (some) | I get the basic cable channels, the Digital Classic, Digital preferred. I do NOT get Digital premium (HBO), and only some of the HD (one local HD - NBC), TNT, ESPN, Discovery... |
| 2/12/08 | Suresh | Comcast | DCT6200 | Atlanta, GA | All standard cable, most digital, all basic HD | I can tune to any channel that is active on the box. Some channels are always problematic, some give no problems. I prime the port twice an hour if nothing is recording from the box, and get very reliable recordings from known good channels. Without priming it would get mostly failures when recording. |
| 2/12/08 | TugBoat | Shaw | DCT6200 & DCT6412 | Edmonton, AB, Canada | Standard Cable, Digital (some), all HD | After trying a variety of firewire chipsets, the ones that work the best are the latest Agere chips FW323 v61 with no priming ( More Details Here) As for tuning, some SD channels simply will not work, for example all the Galaxy music only channels between 401 and up (we use our low def tuners via svideo for those). All our HD channels work including the "HD Plus" channels like Discovery HD, National Geographic HD, A&E HD, HD Movie channels, etc. However the 5C flag has been on in the past and maybe in the future.
|
| 2/23/08 | Kelly | Time Warner | DCT6200 | Dallas, TX | All non premium or Pay for view channels until last spring. Now only digital channels...and only sporadically | For about a year or so, MythTV worked amazingly well for me under Fedora 4 using the Firewire on my DCT-6200. Then, without warning, it became sporadic. It seems that they introduced a firmware update (I don't remember the version number) that broke it for me. After that point, all analog channels could only be accessed if I first changed the channels with a remote. Even then, they would crop off part of the picture. Digital channels still show up, but only when the firewire hasn't randomly shuffled nodes on me. It's almost impossible now to have a stable DVR with it, but I can still record digital channels from time to time. Before Time Warner took over from Comcast, several channels were 5c'd. Examples include: Discovery HD and ESPN HD. However, that is no longer the case. I don't use any premium channels, and so 5c has become a non-issue for me most of the time. I eagerly hope that the firewire code will recieve an overhaul soon to be compatible out of the box with the new kernels, and I hope that that will solve the firewire shuffling problem. (Unfortunately, I think that problem is TWC related. Might try getting a new box if I can ever get over my laziness about it) Incidentally, I am now running it under Ubuntu 7.04. (I switched after it stopped working) |
| 3/1/08 | John | Comcast | DCH3416 | Santa Clara, CA | Some | Initial tests seem good. Able to get major networks in standard and HD. |
| 4/10/08 | Dejan | Comcast | DCH3200 | Mountain View, CA | Most | Non-premium (both SD and HD) are available and recording since Oct 2007 has been mostly reliable. Due to some oddity an OTA HD station is 5C'd (channel 705 - the local CBS affiliate). |
| 4/12/08 | Jamie | Comcast | DCH3416 | Seattle, WA | Most | Non-premium (both SD and HD) are available and recording reliably. Had to use broadcast mode. |
| 4/12/08 | Joe | Comcast | DCH3416 | Pittsburgh, PA | Most | SD and HD are available and recording. Had to use broadcast mode. |
| 7/26/08 | Daniel | Rogers | SA3250 | Stratford, ON, Canada | Some | Most major networks available in HD |
| 8/18/08 | shadowlordkt | Shaw | DCT6416 Phase 3 | Vancouver, BC, Canada | HD channels only | Capture via PCI firewire card, Sunix FW3010C (VIA 6206 chipset) using broadcast mode. Also works with a Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 firewire chipset. However, for both firewire chipsets, the box seems to require periodic firewire reset & stabilization using (firewire_tester). |
| 8/26/08 | Chris | Charter | SA4250 | Pepperell MA | Digital only? | Some brief testing with the OSX FireWire SDK and VLC. Changing channel via remote. The only channels that appeared to be available were the local networks, the live video portion of the TVguide and PPV preview channels, and the music channels (with slideshow). |
| 9/20/08 | Kris Rose | Cablevision (iO) | SA4250HD | Westchester, NY | SD+HD | Using the SA4250HDC/Point-to-point/100MB setting in Myth. Only works with one cable box: recordings revert to noise as soon as two boxes have been used. All SD and HD channels (including premium) work. Update (6/1/09): Cablevision seems to have disabled firewire for all premium channels...investigating. |
| 10/06/08 | rhpot1991 | Comcast | Motorolla DHC3200 | Harrisburg, PA | Most HD | I have no idea about HBO or any pay channels. A few that I don't get are MojoHD, MusicHD, and FxHD. |
| 9/20/08 | tafypz | Cablevision (iO) | SA4250HD | Westchester, NY | SD+HD | Using the SA4250HDC/Point-to-point/400MB setting in Myth. Works with 4 cable boxes. Most SD and HD channels (including premium) work (3 HD channels with 5c, about 15 SD channels with 5c). |
| 12/2/08 | Dillwead | RCN | DCT 5100 (I think) | Chicago, IL | All SD and HD channels that I pay for | Cable box is set up in MythTV as a Motorola DCT 6200 using a Broadcast connection. I don't subscribe HBO or other premium channels but HD channels like ESPN and Discovery come in fine. Connecting via point-to-point was flaky and not as reliable as broadcast. |
| 1/9/09 | jumpfroggy | Verizon FIOS | QIP 7100-1 | RI | N/A | Haven't gotten audio/video to work, but channel changing works via 6200ch script. Had to modify script to send 4 digits instead of 3, since FIOS has >999 channels. |
| 2/16/09 | ntsecrets | RCN (Boston) | DCH3200 | MA | All | Using the 62xx box I had lots of trouble with glitches every 60 seconds, but this box has been rock solid even with the VIA firewire chipset. I had to modify 6200ch to work with it, I also added the option to power it on and off. No 5c channels YET. |
| 2/16/09 | noahbeach | Cox Communications | DCH3200 | Hampton Roads | All, except Comedy Central HD | Working great in Broadcast mode (P2P works just not as solid). The only channel I've come across that wont function is Comedy Central HD (SD works fine). This is a relatively new HD channel in the lineup too, so I'm hoping that 5C encryption on new channels isnt a new thing with Cox. |
| 7/16/09 | Daniel | Mediacom | Pace DC757x | Iowa, USA | All non-premium | Worked out-of-the-box with "generic" firewire STB setup. Channel changing works with 6200ch.c, if you pass it the firewire node using the "-g" flag. Don't know about 5C encryption on premium channels, but works fine with "standard" HD channels (HGTVHD, etc.) that Mediacom decided to scramble for some stupid reason. |
| 9/10/09 | andreasch | Cox | SA3250HD | Chandler, AZ | So far most SD and OTA HD channels but no HD premium channels | Using the SA4250HDC/Point-to-point/400MB setting in MythTV. Still testing/investigating. |
| 9/14/09 | Mihanson | Verizon FiOS | QIP6200-2 | Los Angeles, CA | 52 in all (35-ish which are probably relevant) plus locals and music | Rosewill RC-501 firewire card / p2p / 100MB / generic STB / disable firewire bus reset / channel changes with 6200ch patched for 4 digit channel numbers. Use the firewire_primer.sh script for channel changes. Verizon uses CCI and as long as CCI is set to 0x00 or 0x01 and DRM is set to 0x00 or 0x01 the channel seems to work. Tune channel, press power button the put box in standby and then press "OK" twice to bring up menu or use scanfw from mythbuntu. scanfw is also available in the KnoppMyth/LinHES R6 repos. |
| 9/20/09 | Jamoody | Comcast | DCT6412 | Poughkeepsie, NY | All HD (no premium channels) | MythDora 10.21 plus libiec61883 1.2.0-1.fc10 and libraw1394 2.0.1-1.fc10. During card setup selected Generic firewire since 6412 is not listed (6212 is). |
| 10/02/09 | Loopy123 | Comcast | RNG200/SA8540 | Arlington, VA | All HD/SD (no premium channels) | Mythbuntu Mythtv-0.21-fixes dv1394. During card setup selected SA4200HD. |
| 02/12/10 | Nausser | Comcast | RNG-150 | Jupiter, FL | All HD/SD (no HBOHD, SHOHD, etc) | Mythbuntu 9.10 Plug and play. During card setup selected SA4200HD and set bitrate to 400MB/s. |
| 10/21/09 | Jwbrown77 | Cox | DCX3200-M | Irvine, CA | All HD/SD (no premium channels) | Mythbuntu 9.10 Beta MythTV-0.22-RC1. Had to add new model and vendor IDs to 6200ch.c and define /usr/bin/6200ch as the external channel changer. Patch with new IDs submitted to Myth dev team. |
| 11/06/09 | Johnnyjboss | TimeWarner | DCX3200 | Dallas, Tx | only a Very Few Basic and local Channels seem to work | Mythbuntu 9.04 2:0.21.0+fixes-22228-openglvdpau2-0ubuntu0 - used patches for /usr/bin/6200ch to compile with DCX3200 support. Broadcast is only option (no p2p) and the channels that work are so few I'm probably going to buy the HD-PVR. |
| 12/01/09 | Kronic.Deth | Charter | DCT6200 | Rochester, MN | All HD/SD except some Digital View Plus | Everything appeared to be working, but The Science Channel is encrypted and MythTV can't acquire a LAM Lock on the channel. |
| 12/12/09 | Dave.9 | Novus | DCT6200 | Vancouver,BC | All analog, HD/SD digital, and music-only channels | Works on Mythbuntu 9.10 and 10.04, mythtv 0.22/0.23: Power-on, tuning/viewing/recording, and channel changing all work using Broadcast 400Mbps. FireWire card is Agere FW322/323, rev 61. DCT6200 menu shows 5C=no and Copy Control: Copy Free. Can't test premium channels as I don't subscribe to them. |
| 02/28/2010 | Mark | Comcast | RNG110 | Boston, MA | All HD/SD digital stations | Fedora 11 running MythTV 0.22. Channel change using 6200ch. Recording and LiveTV viewing. I don't have any premium channels, but all others tested work. Firewire PCI Dynex DX-FC103, Agere Systems FW322/323 (rev 61) using P2P at bitrate of 400MB/s. |
| 03/01/10 | Lbecque | Charter | SA8300HD | New Fairfield, CT | Not yet tested | Found the following link on Charter's website indicating that it should be functional: http://www.charter.com/customers/support.aspx?SupportArticleID=17 will let everyone know how it turns out. |
| 05/11/2010 | Bumpy Finklestien | Cox Cable | DCX3200 | Virginia Beach, VA | Everything I've tried so far | Screwed with this for days to no avail. Called cable company who said 1394 ports are disabled. I let them know they were in violation of FCC ruling and would be filing complaint. My 1394 port started working. Like MAGIC. MythDora 10 P2P 400MB/s. |
| 06/14/2010 | Erik Sejr | Northwestel | DCX-3200-M | Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, CA | All channels in the "Essentials" (SD+HD) package at a minimum | Had to add new ID "DCX-3200" to firewiredevice.cpp and recompile. Internal channel changer did not work. Added model ID 0x0000f760 to 6200ch.c and used 6200ch as the external channel changer. Working P2P @ 100Mbps and 400Mbps but most of my testing was done with it set 400Mbps. Running Fedora 13 mythtv-0.23-fixes.
|
| 06/15/2010 | jjohns63 | Comcast | RNG110 | Atlanta, GA | "Digital Premium" SD+HD | Mythbuntu 9.10 (0.23-fixes)-set up as a DCT-6200 P2P at 400Mbps. LiveTV seems to have some instability but regular recordings work a treat. Did not add an external channel change script. Music choice channels and Encore do not work, I don't subscribe to anything premium. Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A. Update: I have since switched to an HD-PVR as the LiveTV was too unstable for my liking. |
| 06/27/2010 | Ozite | Comcast | DCH3200 | Jacksonville, FL | All channels in HD Digital Starter | Ubuntu 10.04 (0.23-fixes). Using a VIA PCI firewire card from monoprice and firewire tuner setup as Motorola DCH3200 using P2P at 100Mbps. LiveTV works well and box automatically powered on and changes to desired channel for a recording. Did not need add an external channel change script. |
| 06/30/2010 | Tarpie | Cox | SA4240HDC | Fairfax, VA | Only OTA Channels | Kubuntu 10.04 (0.23-fixes24158). Using motherboard intel chipset firewire and default settings when adding firewire capture device. Channel changing works. Almost all non-OTA channels have EMI:once. |
| 09/06/2010 | Jamoody | Comcast | DCT6412 | Beekman, NY | All HD Channels | Records Fedora 10.21 out of the box. HD channels 2.1-13.1 are in the clear and record with tuner card fine. Channels above 13 record fine via STB. 2 STBs daisy chained record fine. |
| 09/12/2010 | Chrismurf2900 | Comcast | RNG-150 | Elkridge, MD | All (no HBOHD, SHOHD, etc.) | Using Mythbuntu 10.04, Plug and play ready. Make sure that during setup you select SA4200HD and set the bitrate to 400MB/s (I utilized nausser's notes to help get setup. Same process as theirs). |
| 09/27/2010 | jmleddy | Time Warner Cable | SMT-M3050 | New York, NY | Nothing | Using gentoo. Wasn't able to change bcast_connection=63. Got weird error messages from firewire_tester |
