Hi. I am thinking about purchasing a used Shaw HD terminal so that I can watch television (HD mainly) on my 24" iMac in my bedroom.

After looking around, it seems that I can achieve this by purchasing a Motorola DCT-6200 and connecting it via Firewire to my iMac, and then using VLC and AVCBrowser to actually view the channels.

Questions:
1. In the Vancouver area/suburbs, are people still using firewire to watch TV on computers without issue?
2. Is it possible to watch SD channels in addition to HD channels under this kind of a setup?
3. Even if I am not successful in my endeavor, buying a used DCT-6200 for $50 or less won't be too bad because I can use it as a backup unit for my living room the next time my Pace unit dies. I also have seen threads where you can apparently trade in a box you own for a new ARRIS box. Would I be able to trade in a DCT-6200 (a non-PVR unit) to an ARRIS Total Home Portal (which is non-PVR, correct?), and would this Portal function like a regular digital terminal to watch television even if I don't own the ARRIS Gateway?
4. What should I check for when purchasing a used Shaw box on craigslist. See if it powers up? Call Shaw to verify that it can be activated (i.e. not blacklisted or whatever)?
5. Will there be less headaches in just buying an LCD TV? Even if I go this route, I'd be curious to see if I could buy a cheap digital box or digital PVR and trading it to the latest ARRIS hardware.

Thanks in advance! :)

Questions:
1. In the Vancouver area/suburbs, are people still using firewire to watch TV on computers without issue?

Yes.


2. Is it possible to watch SD channels in addition to HD channels under this kind of a setup?

Yes with conditions. Not all channels will come in over firewire due to copy-protection issues. Most of the basic HD ones will work (CBC, CTV, ABC, FOX, etc.); but the premium HD and SD digital cables are hit-and-miss.


3. Even if I am not successful in my endeavor, buying a used DCT-6200 for $50 or less won't be too bad because I can use it as a backup unit for my living room the next time my Pace unit dies. I also have seen threads where you can apparently trade in a box you own for a new ARRIS box. Would I be able to trade in a DCT-6200 (a non-PVR unit) to an ARRIS Total Home Portal (which is non-PVR, correct?), and would this Portal function like a regular digital terminal to watch television even if I don't own the ARRIS Gateway?


The Portal doesn't work by itself without the Gateway, and you can't trade in a DCT-6200 for neither Portal nor Gateway.


4. What should I check for when purchasing a used Shaw box on craigslist. See if it powers up? Call Shaw to verify that it can be activated (i.e. not blacklisted or whatever)?


Others will chime in here, but I'd get the serial number and then call it into Shaw to verify. Having seen it powered up would be a good idea.


5. Will there be less headaches in just buying an LCD TV? Even if I go this route, I'd be curious to see if I could buy a cheap digital box or digital PVR and trading it to the latest ARRIS hardware.


An LCD TV will allow you to view all subscribed channels on the box, whereas NOT buying an LCD will restrict you to unencrypted channels available by firewire. As mentioned earlier, there is no trade in for the non-PVR boxes. The ARRIS boxes don't seem to have firewire ports, at least according to the mock-ups at BestBuy.

Thank you so much for your help shadowlordkt.

In addition to the Motorola DCT-6200, are there any other models that will let me use Firewire? And does it matter if I get a PVR-variant or not (I don't plan on attempting to PVR with the Mac anyways)?

Cheers,
bluetooth

if you can buy a card for your mac or imac with component imput, then you can connect your stb that way and watch it through the analog component hd instead of fire wire. hope that helps

Thank you so much for your help shadowlordkt.

In addition to the Motorola DCT-6200, are there any other models that will let me use Firewire? And does it matter if I get a PVR-variant or not (I don't plan on attempting to PVR with the Mac anyways)?

Cheers,
bluetooth

I had both the Motorola DCT-6416 (PVR) and the Motorola DCT-6200 (non-PVR) working in a daisy-chained firewire configured to record two different shows at once. Since I didn't have much use for the PVR-part of the DCT-6416 (it's horribly crippled compared to MythTV) and I was renting the unit for free, I returned it back to Shaw when the free-rental period ended.

Unfortunately, both models are now discontinued. From what I can tell, the Motorola DCX-3200 (non-PVR) or DCX-3400 seem to be the only current units that have a firewire plug. However, I have not tried them personally; nor do have I heard any reports of anyone attempting to use it with Shaw, successfully or otherwise.

You are really only using the box as a tuner, so you won't need a PVR variant; in fact, save yourself some money and get the non-PVR version. However, there are many free PVR software packages out there that you could install on your iMac to turn that into a PVR. Just make sure you have sufficient HDD space; once you get hooked, you'll find yourself out of space.

I'll propose a different solution for you...

You can buy an HD Slingbox for $200. Connect the Slingbox to your internet connection (no wifi) and a cable box and you'll be able to stream HD anywhere in your house, PLUS access it if you travel, or are elsewhere. I use my Slingbox on my laptop while at home, and it provides me with a portable "tv." If you have another Shaw box in the house then you won't even have to buy one for your bedroom, saving you some money.

I have an an Avermedia AverTV USB HD DVR, and using that you can just plug the DCT6200 via component cable to watch your shows... Also I have a hauppauge PCI HVR-1600 internal card on my Windows Machine running Windows Media Center and I use it to control set top boxes like the DXM3400 and record shows (or watch)

As for an iMac, your only option is firewire or a USB solution like the AVerTV or Hauppauge USB DVR, but those eat up CPU cycles unlike the hardware encoding power of the HVR-1600