HD-PVR for cable box VOD?

[Kirby]

Is it possible to utilize my HD-PVR for my cable box’s VOD channel (999)?  Complete with arrow controls and navigation, etc.

To make matters worse, it is in a different location than where my HTPC (moving to media center 7) is going to be.  Was wondering about the DVBLink software, and running the HD-PVR through my WHS2011 box.  But in all my searching I could not find anything that showed remote control keys other than the 0-9 numbers being used, and I would need to use the arrow keys for navigating the VOD menus.

My current sagetv setup has the HD-PVR used for my copy-once cable card channels, but it wont be needed for this use anymore, and I was trying to re-purpose it.  I use a USBUIRT for blasting commands to the cable STB (more reliable than the built in emitter).

Thought briefly about firestb control, but I am all 64bit.  I could try to run a 32bit XP virtual box on my WHS2011 server, but not sure it has the horsepower (HP Microserver N40L with 8GB ram).

Thoughts or ideas?

[skirge01]

Your first problem will probably be your main obstacle, which I also cannot figure out how to overcome on DirecTV.  You can’t automate the menu navigation on the STB.  While you could certainly get it to tune the channel and begin recording, that’s where control would stop.  You’d need to use the STB remote to make any selections necessary to get the VOD stream to start.  I haven’t found an acceptable method to integrate that into my TV watching, but I’ll explain the roadblocks I found.

To make matters even worse, let’s say you did actually take note of all the menu navigation necessary in order to watch a show on VOD and input all those sequences into something like EventGhost or Girder, all to be sent via a single button on a Logitech Harmony remote.  You’re still guessing what messages your commands are responding to.  If the channel is tuned improperly, all other commands are wasted.  What happens if the STB’s software is updated and the sequence changes?  What if there’s an additional prompt for some reason?  What if it manages to tune a PPV channel and the sequence of commands you send actually wind up making a PPV purchase?

[Kirby]

I kind of figured that would be an issue.  Oh well, so much for finding a creative way to integrate cable VOD into the HTPC.  Guess I will just try and sell the HD-PVR then, as I wont have any real need for it.

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