Testing Firewire Output from HD Cable Box

[sbt5]

Is there a way to test the firewire output on my cable box. Presently I am using the composite output to a tv tuner card to capture video. I can recorde any channel including the premium HD channels, however they are in 4:3 aspect ratio (SD). I would like to be able to record HD channels in widescreen (and save to Xvid). I see video capture cards that have firewire inputs, but before I make purchase, I would really like to find out if the port is enabled on the back of my cable box. I am a cablevision customer and the box is a SA Explorer HD4200. The information about the cable box is a little vague in this area, but I also have read in other forums that under federal law if a firewire connection is present it should be functional ????? Knowing how much content providers protect there HD content I would be very surprised if I could capture a HD signal from my cable box. Any information in this area would be appreciated. I do see captures of HD signals and some don't only appear to be OTA, could be from a satellite receiver?

Thanks

[mats.hogberg]

So - you don't have a FireWire connector at all in your computer? If not, get one - FireWire cards are dirt cheap, and has nothing to do with capture cards (even if I can imagine some manufacturers would throw one in).
Maybe this
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/20/1943207
can shed some light, and possibly be a starting point for further research.

/Mats