HOW TO: HD content from your cable box to your Mac

hackersmovie · Last edited by hackersmovie on Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:01 pm; edited 3 times in total

THIS WILL BE LENGTHY AND DETAILED BUT PLEASE READ ALL OF IT!

So you have an HD cable box and your Mac, you want to either transfer some HD recordings from your cable box or you want to record live HD. How do you do it? What software and or hardware do you need? Read along to find out....

First, let me say that I've tried this successfully with the following components: (I can only verify this to work with these)

Hardware:
Motorola DCT6412III - HD PVR
Pace Micro Technologies TDC778X - HD PVR
iMac 17" 1.83Ghz 2GB RAM

Software:
VLC (version 0.8.6c & 0.8.6d are verified to work)
SDK25 from Apple Developers Connection (it's free to sign up and you must be a member to download it)
AVCBrowser (included in the SDK25)

So where do you get the required software?

Try these....

Firewire SDK25 (you need to be a member and logged in to download, this link is a direct link to the .dmg file.)

VLC 0.8.6d

O.k. so you've got the required software. You'll need a FW400 cable. Connect your FW cable from your cable box to your Mac. Make sure your cable box is turned on. Navigate through the developer folder. (it was created when you installed the SDK)

It's easiest if you move the AVCBrowser to your dock. Open AVCBrowser.

Click "Open Device-Control Panel"

You should now see this:

In the top right corner click "Open Device" NOTE: if you don't see the device, the FW on the cable box has not been enabled.
Click the "Plugs" tab, then you'll see this:

set the channel in both input and output to "63" and click "Connect" for both input and output plugs. NOTE: it may show an error for the input plug. If it does, don't worry you'll still be able to record HD from the cable box.

Next click on the "Panel" tab. At this point you should try changing channels using the Chan Up & Chan Down buttons on the top left. It should change the channels on your cable box. This will just verify your connected and have control of the box.

If all is well so far, go ahead and click "Start Viewer" this will launch VLC and open a "stream" from the cable box to your Mac.

You should see this:

You'll have a VLC window and controller open. It may take a minute or so for VLC to show video, be patient.

So now your watching HD. How do you record it? Let's keep going...

Go to VLC>file, go down to Streaming/Export Wizard. It will open this window:

Check Transcode/Save to file and click next.

Click Existing Playlist item. Click next.

DO NOT CHECK ANYTHING IN THIS BOX, JUST CLICK NEXT!

Encapsulation format has to be set to: MPEG TS, click next:

Choose where you want it to save to and name it what you like. If you check local playback it will use quite a bit more CPU but, then you can watch what your recording.

This is the summary of what's going to happen. Click Finish and let it go.... You will have to manually stop the recording. You can two ways:

1) click Stop Viewer in the AVCBrowser
2) Close VLC

Be careful HD recordings take up a lot of space. I recorded 54mins and it was 3.84GB!! Depending on the nature of the program an hour of HD content can take up as much as 10GB!!

Here's a screen shot of the "National Geographic Channel HD". I'm not so sure it will do it justice but, it's a way cool shot. I used VLC to take the screen shot.

Hope this helps. Post with questions.
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Bandit Bill · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:45 pm Post subject:

Thanks Hackersmovie. I have a Motorolla DCT6416III, I'm sure it will be the same. Mine may just be the version with the 160GB drive.

Has anyone heard anything about upgrading the internal drive or connecting an external SATA drive? This would be a nice option and much simpler for many of us.

hackersmovie · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:49 pm Post subject:

kbulava · Veteran Member Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 524

AWESOME job on this tutorial dude. For some reason though my DCT-6200 won't display the video or audio after following these steps and pressing Start Viewer on the device control panel. VLC opens up and appears to be playing on the controller but it doesn't show anything. Even after 10 minutes there's no picture or sound. Any ideas on what might fix this?

P.S. When I change channels from AVC it changes the channel on my cable box so it is connected properly.
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hackersmovie · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:10 pm Post subject:

ghostdawg · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 5:55 am Post subject:

This is a great HOWTO...it should be a sticky or have a HowTo topic. Keep them coming.
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hackersmovie · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:59 am Post subject:

kbulava · Veteran Member Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 524

So I should just call the cable company and tell them to flash the box? Is that a signal or something they can do over the line? Can I tell them I'm trying to connect it to my mac via firewire?

I actually have to call them anyway to bitch about my internet connection the last couple of days. I think the cold weather is messing something up, I've reset the netwwork 3 times to regain connectivity. Thanks!
_________________
Mac Mini 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, Pioneer DVR-K06 Superdrive, 2GB Crucial RAM, 200GB 7200rpm HD
iPhone 3G 16GB Black
LaCie 500GB Gigabit Ethernet Disk mini
Apple BT Keyboard/Mighty Mouse, iSight
Vizio 42" 1080p LCD HDTV

hackersmovie · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:10 pm Post subject:

mquetel · New Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

hackersmovie · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:22 am Post subject:

redrain · Junior Member Joined: 17 Feb 2006 Posts: 38

I just went to my local Comcast office and they had no idea what I was talking about. When I told her about the FCC mandate, she said, "Well, laws change you know" in a sneery tone. I am now on hold with Comcast and the first two people that I've talked to have no idea what I am talking about. He said he was going to find someone who did but I'm not sure if I'm on hold or if they hung up on me. They sure make this a pain in the ass, my next step is complaining to the FCC but I'm sure that they won't do anything.

redrain · Junior Member Joined: 17 Feb 2006 Posts: 38

I finally decided that they hung up so I called back and the first guy I talked to knew what I was talking about and set up an appointment for someone to come out and install it. I don't know why they need to have someone come out to plug in a box and charge me $30, but its cheaper than buying a DVR.

trs23 · New Member Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 3

Doug Eldred · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:54 am Post subject:

At one time there was an app called iRecord, that I believe was a GUI front end for the SDK 20 app. It's PowerPC and hasn't been updated in a couple of years. Does anyone know if this still is "alive" somewhere, or is it dead?

Doug
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