STB's that Accept Cable Cards

[mike1961]

Are there any STB's that accept cable cards. I understand there are a lot of TV's nowadays that do. There is one STB from ATI that does but as I understand it you have to buy an entire computer and can't buy the STB separately. I'm thinking I won't have to rent a cable box from my cable company since the Motorola 2500 STB is terrible and dct.exe does not work right changing the channels on the STB and is very unreliable.

On another note, am I correct that if I did go the IR route with the STB's then I would need to isolate the STB's and get 3 USB-UIRT's - one to control each STB? As I understand it the USB-UIRT can control several STB's but if the STB's all interpret the same codes then I would think the USB-UIRT would change the channel on all three of them at the same time unless one isolated them and had separate USB-UIRT's.

Thanks,
Mike

[sleonard]

The CableCard device is not a set-top box but a PCI card and it will not work with anything but Vista Media Center and then only on the computer it was purchased with.

Good news is that a USB-UIRT can control 3 STB's even if they all use the same code. One box has its channel changed via the blaster and the other two get their channel changes via a wired emitter. You will need to isolate them but that is easy if you get a little creative with some electrical tape.

See the detailed instructions I wrote in one of the threads here. I don't have the URL handy but it is referenced in the Sage manual so it should be easy to find.

S