Adding Functionality to Digital Cable Boxes? 19
Marqis asks: "I have a Motorola DCT-2000 (info here) and supposedly it supports 3rd party software. I would like to be that 3rd party but I can't find any information about programming this unit or how the data port can be used. After phoning Motorola I was told that the data port hasn't been activated yet. Not sure how that works. Anyhow, I really hate my cable company's layout of the on screen tv listings as it only shows a 1/2 hour time block. I would much prefer a 1 hour (or even 1.5 hour) time listing that should be possible if the gigantic 'Push here for help' buttons were taken out.
Also, I know from reading news groups that lots of people would like the ability to change channels through the data port so their Tivo's wouldn't have to use a sometimes flaky IR blaster. Web surfing, email checking, tv listing download, mpeg streaming to a pc and the like are also theoretically possible. Any info on the data port, protocols, compilers, etc would be greatly appreciated."
Re:Obvious solution (Score:3, Insightful)
What Marqis wants to do is add a third party software package to the Motorola unit so that he can replace the TV-listings screen format and add functionality to the data port so that the tivo and the motorola can talk directly to each other, without using an un-reliable IR link.
Re:Obvious solution (Score:3, Informative)
Now there are other issues. The serial port on the DCT box should be enabled so as to allow external devices to send channel change commands instead of using the less-than-100%-reliable IR cable that is connected to my ReplayTV.
It would be nice to eliminate the pop-up that says what channel you're watching and what's on every time you change channels. You can cut it down to two seconds from the default five, but it is still annoying having that at the start of each show on my hard drive. I've thought about taking apart the DCT, finding the flash chip, downloading the contents, then changing the pop-up time, repeating the process, and then comparing the difference so as to set the time to zero.
Re:Obvious solution (Score:1)
What your looking for? (Score:4, Informative)
It states: This course provides the basics for developing Java applications for the Motorola DCT-2000 set-top box running Liberate's Compact client software.
Now I don't know if thats what your looking for, but it sounds like it may be a new lead to chase down at the very least.
Even if your box doesn't use the Liberate software, they may be able to give you some helpful info. Call em a few times if you need to. It's been my exp. that if guy A doesn't know/can't help/won't help you usually need to call back no more then 4 more times before someone out there will give you a new lead to chase. Check it out.
/me Kisses his DirectTiVo
blah (Score:1)
yeah well, I got the box with the understanding that I was getting digital cable.. meaning that I'd at least have digital versions of the analog channels that I was subscribing to. I don't, what a rip off.
Kill the box! Television is evil! (Score:2, Funny)
It seems to me that any box that facilitates television viewing can only be evil as well...
Be Careful... (Score:2, Interesting)
KidA
Re:Be Careful... (Score:1)
I'm assuming that the TV Listings are dependant on the cable company and not the DCT-2000. Which is why I want to hack the feed.
Thanks for the course link Judg3, now if only I could get a copy of the manual I'd be in business!
Re:Be Careful... (Score:1)
I hope this helps
http://www.etvcookbook.org/system/platform.html
Onepoint
Emu? (Score:2)
Probally starts with a cable modem on one end and video out on the other.
What's in the black box in the middle?
SD
Re:more info wanted.. (Score:2, Informative)
Nothing on the motorola, but I used to work for cisco, and at the time they were doing some QA for pace, which had a STB based on cisco's DOCSIS cable modem design. That's probably what's in there. In other words, it should be a complete STB, but at least has a DOCSIS CM built into it (unless this is some other bastard project, who knows what else pace is up to.)
On the reference designs there are connectors for a serial port. I suspect the solder pads will still be there on final production models, but probably not the connector. Even so it was some little header that you had to connect a breakout box to.
Data Port (Score:1)
The problem (Score:2)
The way the set top is designed, you have different layers of functionality. The 3rd party software is built at the highest, most abstract layer. So, if you're a cable company with 10 million subscribers, Motorola or whoever the set top maker is will work with you and your software group to develop a user interface for all the set tops on your network. This requires a lot of lawyers, contracts, and politics though, and like I said I don't think you'll be getting any support in that area any time soon. There is, however, a project for open source TV, but I don't know how much progress they've made. I agree with you though, it would be nice to be able to program your STB however you wanted it, especially since cable companies are usually going to do the quickest cheapest thing they can do to get it out the door.
What "3rd party" means (Score:2)
Not to be discouraging, but what Motorola has in mind is that the first party is Motorola, the second party is a cable company (the purchasers of the vast majority of the digital boxes) and the third party is a commercial software company like Liberate or TV Guide. Said third party buys a development license from Motorola, at which point they get actual API documentation, and they write software that they hope to sell to the cable operators for serious amounts of money. Terms of the Motorola license will be onerous; for example, revealing the API information to anyone else will carry heavy financial penalties.
Most cable company digital boxes are programmed at a very low level to accept new software only over the cable itself. The downloads are heavily encrypted, and must pass other authorization checks. I'm not saying that you can't work around all of this and load your software into the box, just that it's going to be difficult and/or expensive. Also, unless your software conforms to your local cable company's box authorization scheme, the box with your software running may no longer be able to decrypt digital channels.
Cable companies are anal about controlling the software on their boxes for a couple of reasons. First, customer care in the case of messed-up boxes is expensive: people to answer the phones (no jokes, please), sending a tech to the house, inventory and handling expenses on box exchanges. New software releases from those third parties is tested very heavily before it is deployed to the field. Second, content contracts require the cable company to go to extremes to "protect" copyrighted material. This includes not only content such as Hollywood films, but other data such as program listings and plot synopses that go into the online program guide.
Fairly recently a couple of companies have begun producing "middleware" that runs on the DCT2000 boxes. In terms of capabilities like Java, these middleware are quite restrictive. For the reasons given above, applets written for such environments are unlikely to be able to access either the tuner or the program guide data. At best, such access would be severely limited.
Scientific Atlanta (Score:2, Informative)
I do know how to get into the diag mode though: hold down the diamond button for 5 seconds then hit select (or maybe both at the same time). You can see DETAILED information about the box, tune channels, etc... quite interesting!!
If anyone else is interested in this box, post or mail me, because I have been wondering what I could do to this box for over a year, I just never got around to messing around with it.