Comcast XFINITY TV → Stream live cable programs to computer display

I'm experimenting with our Comcast HD signal and a new Motorola DCT6200 connected via FireWire to a PowerBook G4 1.2GHz running Mac OS X (v10.3.7). I've successfully recorded and played HD movies and SD TV programs using Apple's AVC Browser 0.3.1 and the open source VLC Media Player 0.8.1 for Mac OS X.

The macteens.com instructions for this worked perfectly! See »macteens.com/more.php?id ··· +TV+sign

1. Since I don't have a standalone HDTV or HD monitor as of yet, can I configure this combination of Mac applications to stream live HD (or even SD) programs to my Mac monitor, and use it as my HDTV display?

2. If so, does anyone have any idea what AVC Browser or VLC application settings must be changed?

3. If not, why doesn't this work?

You're talking about a huge amount of data going through your network (19MB/sec). Unless you have a gigE connection on your home network, you're going to choke.

I too am experimenting with those Macteen instructions. Were you able to find the iCal plugins for the timer scripts? Also, were you able to get the "set channel and record" script to work (I wasn't)?

I'm not planning to move data across the network, although it does have three separate zones, one of which is gigabit ethernet. Instead, I plan to move data from the cable box directly to the Mac through the FireWire connections on each. Even the older, lower-priced Macs with the G4 processor all have FireWire. This will become a valuable feature as home theater systems proliferate.

The set channel and record portion worked just fine. I have not done anything with the iCal scripts yet.

Did you download the iCal scripts? If so, where did you find them?

The scripts are at »mac_hdtv_timer.home.comcast.net
I wrote them. There is a big thread discussing them at the Mac HTPC forum at AVSForum.com. I now use iRecord from the link below. A fellow AVSForum member prepared iRecord. The scripts are still useful for remotes and scheduling from iCal, if desired.

You can also try »macpvr.home.comcast.net for iRecord and the vlc module

Use EyeTV 1.7, a free download, for playback at »www.elgato.com as it is much, much better than vlc

There is not a good solution for streaming HDTV live. There is a vlc hack for SD at the second URL.

The EyeTV 500 does QAM now.

Joe
jsb_hburg at avsforum.com

Just a little FYI, it's 19Mbps, bits not bytes.

That makes a difference as a 802.11g network could handle the data then.

802.11g's "54mbps" only yields about 18mbps of effective performance. It is no problem to play a HDTV stream over a network, but 802.11g will barely do the job.

-- Rob