In theory, what happens of I connect my WD TV Live Hub and my Cisco 8600HDC cable box?
…via USB OR
…via eSATA OR
…via e-net
The simpleton in me says, well everything will just be fantastic and they’ll see each other and each others bits and I’ll be able to move things around willy nilly and all my hair will grow back. The realist in me says the Cisco Box goes into a roid induced rage and tries to format my WD TV Live Hub’s HDD and then sends an urgent note to my cable provider indicating that I’ve downloaded Koala porn.
Unfortunately I do not believe any of those will work. The Hub, like your Cisco, wants to be master on the circuit, and doesn’t know how to be the slave device.
Actually the Cisco 8600HD is DLNA compliant. So there’s myriad possibilities…
I CAN stick my Cisco Cable Box on my IP network, but I would expect the highest hurdles regarding HDCP and then only modest DLNA functionality. What creeps me out about this is that this scenario opens the door for Time Warner to snoop around on my virtual property. That Cable box is their property and it is obviously on their ntwk.
I’d be willing to bet that an eSATA connection would allow them to see each other and I’m 77.9% sure the Cisco box wouldn’t try to format my WDTVLH, but that 22.1% scares the bejesus outta me.
I’d also be willing to bet that the USB would be even more likely to limit the odds of something going really wrong as the USB architecture is much more about connection and less about bandwidth/massive fast transfers (statement in comparison to eSATA)
Next week I’m replacing the last piece of 10/100 infrastructure in my house with a Gigabit device. After that’s done I’ll be able to quickly move everything off the WDTVLH to a temp home and test out some different connection configuration scenarios.
