Feed Rogers Cable Box feed into Android TV

by bort_sampson

So I must admit I'm a bit of a newb when it comes to Android TV. My Sony TV came with it and I never really played with it much but I've accidentally discovered a few cool features of it that I'd love to be able to use.

The thing is, I live in Canada and have a Rogers "Nextbox" in order to get my HD Cable (ie. I'm not using an antenna). Is there any way to get these two things to talk to each other so I can use cool features like the Android TV Guide or "Live Channels" app? I read somewhere that old GoogleTV used to support something called HDMI pass thru? Not sure if that's true.

My TV is a Sony Bravia w800c

dasdagoodone

There's an HDHomeRun product that is designed for cable customers (called the Prime I think) as opposed to for antennas. It takes the place of your cable box but instead of outputting to a TV traditionally it sends it out over the network to any DLNA device or its app. The app for Android TV supports Live Channels.

Disclaimer: I'm not sure if it'll work with your cable provider though, let alone in Canada at all.

stephen_morris

Did your TV come with a IR Blaster cable? It looks like earbuds with sticky ends on the "ear pieces". You have to use that. Plug the cord into the 3.5mm jack on the TV and take one of the sticky ends and place it on the NextBox where you would point the remote to change the channel. (Unless you have the new remote that allows you to interact without aiming - then you just have to guess.) Then go into settings and do the live tv setup. I have a XBR800D and Bell Fibe and it works flawlessly. You can control everything from the Sony remote and you can use the built-in guide or NextBox guide through the action menu. You can even turn the NextBox on and off from the action menu. It's the best TV I've ever purchased. No buyers remorse here!

vba77

I've been curious about this too, but can android TV handle that considering it's just outputting video with no real control to flip through its channels

magmapus

The old google TV could do something similar, yeah, but Android TV can't.

There's no way to watch digital cable on Android TV in Canada without a lot of workarounds.

nononoitsfine

If you have a Bravia, you can sort of do this with their Guide feature or whatever it's called. The IR blaster that comes with the TV can integrate with the cable box toooooo so it's pretty seamless

BBmag

Tvheadend

SX86

The old Google TV had an HDMI input and output (sort of like what the Xbox One has), that would overlay Google TV OS over the HDMI input feed.

There's nothing similar for Android TV. You have to use OTA or CableCard (not available in Canada) with a TV Tuner like HDHomeRun to have your Guide working inside Android TV.