[ale] trying to get video capture working on Ubuntu or Mint, no luck

[Michael Nolan]

On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 4:42 AM, Ron Frazier wrote:
> I have a Comcast Explorer 8300 HD cable box by Scientific Atlanta with a
> firewire port.

Comcast *requires* a digital box now, even for basic, (formally
non-scrambled) channels. Their magic inside the box is proprietary and
all you can get out of the video-out is the channel you have selected
with their cable box.

You can't (that I'm aware of) access the recording on the drives
without running it back through their box (ie. "My DVR" or whatever
they call it) and out the video-out.

You can install a bigger drive than comes standard, and I *think* you
can add a second drive, but the digital box has to control it all for
it to work.

This is all from foggy memory of things I used to do, because when
Comcast forced me to get their digital basic boxes several years ago,
I plugged it in for about 15 minutes before all their *free* boxes,
along my old TV's and video recording equipment went into the
dumpster. If I recall, it took like 1.5 seconds to step from on
channel to another. (I think I timed it), and the boxes contained no
guide.

So I went from 5 cable boxes to one (so I can drone to news channels),
signed up for the fasted internet connection they offer, networked my
house, paid for access to Newsgroups and got a VPN provider.

The rest I will leave the reader to imagine... I no longer record
stuff I want to watch.

I don't have a problem paying them for their content. I do have a HUGE
problem with them controlling the way I want to use what I have paid
for.

...and I'm by no means an expert, I could be wrong about how the
converters work...YMMV