gbeardmore
Green Bay
I have a small HD under-cabinet TV in my kitchen. There is no decent place to put TWC's Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC Cable Box nearby. I like to hide it in a cabinet and use an IR Extender. I understand that Scientific Atlanta has such devices that connect to the box's USB port, but I have been told that the port is disabled on TWC's boxes.
I'm wondering if anyone has ideas for ways to either hide the box, or if anyone has had any luck with an IR Extender on an 8300HDC box.
Thanks!
Posted September 29, 2009 12:12pm in
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Whoever told you the port is
Whoever told you the port is disabled on the TWC box is mistaken. I have a 25 ft Scientific Atlanta IR extender and have used it with both the SD and HD DVRs from Time Warner. Had my DVR mounted behind an HDTV and used that extender and it worked wonderfully. (I ordered mine a few years ago direct from Scientific Atlanta, not sure where else has them)
They might be thinking the port is disabled for use with an external hard drive, which it is (the eSATA port on the back does work with external hard drives though).
Hope that helps!
Thanks for the reply! Guess
Thanks for the reply! Guess I'll order one from SA and see what happens.
Where did you buy a
Where did you buy a Scientific Atlanta IR Extender? I've been looking for one, but there is no place to buy them. Cisco website has a PDF with the part number. but it doesn't give you an option to buy. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/video/ps8611/ps8650/ps8663/7016853.pdf
I'm looking for something like this--- http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3195/img0711b.jpg
I bought mine back in 2004
I bought mine back in 2004 or so, and now I'm kind of glad that I did. It doesn't look like they're readily available anymore. At that time, Scientic Atlanta had not yet been bought by Cisco and operated on their own. I think they used to have their own online store for parts, because I remember having to go directly to the manufacturer to buy it. I think they had a 12 foot and 25 foot model, and I got the 25 foot one, which came in handy because I managed to use it on a DVR downstairs, feeding a TV upstairs. I tried searching pretty hard for these things online but it doesn't look like they're out there in the wild, at least without a lot of digging. I wonder if Time Warner has any of them kicking around. Likewise, I wonder if there's any electronics suppliers that have them. Maybe if you call around. There may also be other IR extender options that weren't designed by SA/Cisco that may work too.
Well after a lot of
Well after a lot of searching I found it, but it is only available to Cablevision/Time Warner customers who have Optimum e-mail accounts. http://www.optimumstore.com/product.jsp?parentCategory=&category=&product=prod10080077
Too bad they only have the
Too bad they only have the 12-foot model anymore. My 25-foot cable is very handy with the extra length.
The 25 footer is available on
The 25 footer is available on eBay, item #180446979418
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180446979418&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT#ht_530wt_1165
$50 for that cable is very
$50 for that cable is very pricey though. I think I paid $20 tops for mine.
A cheaper alternative might be one of these RF remote extenders. I got a TERK Leapfrog LFIRX for about $28 that works great, and also works wirelessly through walls up to 100 feet away. We wired our house from the ground up for cable and ethernet, so while I was doing it, I ran a second coax line from RF output of the HD DVR in my family room to an old analog TV in my office about 40 feet away. Put one end of the TERK Leapfrog at the DVR and the other on top of my office TV and I'm able to fully control my DVR in the family room from the office! I like that the end you put at your DVR can either be placed anywhere in the room facing your DVR, or out-of-sight behind the DVR with the optional included IR blaster cable. The IR blaster cable has three heads on it so you could actually control multiple devices, which is a nice feature. No need to program remotes or anything, it just turns the IR commands of the remote into RF wireless signals and then back to IR at the DVR. I usually just take the Time Warner remote from room to room, but am looking for a good universal remote to leave in my office that can control the DVR.
Thinking about doing the same from our living room to the TV in our bedroom (but not sure if running two of these in one house would conflict).
Here is a link to the TERK Leapfrog on Newegg...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882145062
Both the 12 footer and 25
Both the 12 footer and 25 footer are available on eBay right now.
Do a search on eBay for "Scientific Atlanta IR Extender".
UPDATE: 07/19/10 I solved my
UPDATE: 07/19/10
I solved my problem without having to go to SA. I found an IR Extender by Belkin (I think) at Target. Positioned the receive unit nest to the TV in the Kitchen, and the Send unit about 5 feet in front on the SA CAble Box in the basement. Works great!
Thanks to all for the suggestions!