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Adding Functionality to Digital Cable Boxes?
Marqis asks: "I have a Motorola DCT-2000 (info here) and supposedly it supports 3rd party software. I would like to be that 3rd party but I can't find any information about programming this unit or how the data port can be used. After phoning Motorola I was told that the data port hasn't been activated yet. Not sure how that works. Anyhow, I really hate my cable company's layout of the on screen tv listings as it only shows a 1/2 hour time block. I would much prefer a 1 hour (or even 1.5 hour) time listing that should be possible if the gigantic 'Push here for help' buttons were taken out.
Also, I know from reading news groups that lots of people would like the ability to change channels through the data port so their Tivo's wouldn't have to use a sometimes flaky IR blaster. Web surfing, email checking, tv listing download, mpeg streaming to a pc and the like are also theoretically possible. Any info on the data port, protocols, compilers, etc would be greatly appreciated."
That is not such an obvious solution, since the DCT-2000 is a digital cable signal receiver. AFAIK the tivo still does not have the capability to decode the digital cable signals. If you want to use a tivo with digital cable, then you are forced to use an IR dongle to control your digital cable box.
What Marqis wants to do is add a third party software package to the Motorola unit so that he can replace the TV-listings screen format and add functionality to the data port so that the tivo and the motorola can talk directly to each other, without using an un-reliable IR link.