[mythtv-users] Telewest and cable in the UK

Neil Dunbar neil.dunbar at pobox.com
Wed Oct 4 12:06:34 UTC 2006


Robin Neatherway wrote:
>
> Do you use a DVB-C card at all? I assumed the 5 terrestrial channels
> would be there in unencrypted digital form, as well as the BBC
> channels? How would DVB-T be coming over the cable, would that be just
> because it is a long wire or do they retransmit everything broadcast
> in the region over the cable?
>
>   
I think that using a DVB-C card with Telewest is a dead loss - I think
they encrypt all of their channels (and ISTR that it isn't anything that
can be decoded with the normal CAMs available). For my Telewest setup, I
just use a capture card (PVR-350) and the redremote serial IR blaster to
do channel changes.

IIRC, TW's smartcard is twinned to the STB, so even if you could stick
it into a CI slot, it still wouldn't work, since Telewest won't
recognise the card as being a valid receiver for their signals. Sucks,
and I would love to be proven wrong, but I don't think I am.

As for me, as soon as I can get a proper antenna fitted to the house,
I'm dumping Telewest TV and just going for Freeview. I can get 3 DVB-T
tuners in the HTPC box quite easily, so I'm looking forward to restoring
... oh, the VCR functionality I had 10 years ago before digital TV made
everything so wonderful.

Cheers,

Neil


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