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Firewire channel change with FiOS
http://forums.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19925		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  ceenvee703 [ Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:15 am ]
Post subject:  Firewire channel change with FiOS
I wanted to try out Firewire channel changing with my FiOS HD set-top box (supposedly a Motorola 6200), and here's what happened when I tried to do so.

After changing video cards to free up a slot and adding a $10 Sabrent Firewire card, I tried using the /usr/local/bin/6200ch Firewire channel changer. It gave me an error about it not finding a 6200 on the 1394 bus.

Searching for the error turned up a thread about having to modify the code to get it to work with a particular vendor ID.

Instead of doing that, I remembered seeing (here?) about a Firewire channel changing script from "Major Idiot" called mythchanger. I downloaded that, compiled and installed it, and it worked perfectly, no code modification required.

I searched for "mythchanger" here and couldn't find any reference to it so I thought I'd post this for future reference.
Author:  christ [ Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:35 pm ]
Post subject: 
yes. that is pretty good. I found it recently too. The only thing I don't like about it is the long pause that it uses to turn the STB on. Hence why I created a separate utility to check or set the power thus allowing the usual case of "If powered on, then just change the channel". The check for power is very fast where as if you power on when it is off then you need to set a guard time as he does.

The utility is at:
http://code.google.com/p/sa3250cmd/

I don't do a VendorID check (since you have to explicitly set the node anyway) so it should work on the 6200 as well.

C
Author:  ceenvee703 [ Sat Jun 06, 2009 7:21 am ]
Post subject: 
I just leave my set-top box on. I hooked it up to a Kill-A-Watt and it uses almost exactly the same power "off" that it does on.

However, maybe every 3 or 4 months (after some kind of system update), it will turn itself off, so I'll check out your code... it'd be nice to have something that could confirm that the STB is on. I guess that's another good reason to use Firewire that I hadn't considered.
Author:  christ [ Sat Jun 06, 2009 7:44 am ]
Post subject: 
That is precisely why I did this. My STBs will be reset sometimes by power failures but more so due to my Cable Co doing some form of update on the STB or network.

As for the power usage; terrible isn't it. If you have the Cisco Scientific Atlanta boxes then it is just disturbing how much power they use for the type of appliance they are. And yes, I think the only power saved by pressing the power button is the cost of the "On" LED. :-)
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