[mythtv-users] All my unencrypted HD channels are in the 700s. Can Myth tune that high?

[Matt Emmott]

On 9/16/07, Eric Robinson <ryunokokoro at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I have Charter cable tv. I just picked up a QAM capable TV, but it
> > doesn't tune past channel 114.5. All my HD channels like ESPNHD,
> > ABCHD, etc, are up around channel 700. I am assuming that these are
> > unencrypted since they are non premium channels - Please correct me if
> > I'm wrong.
> >
> > Anyways, since my TV doesn't tune that high, I was wondering if I
> > could get to these channels via Myth and an HD card, like the pcHDTV
> > HD-5500. My tv has a VGA input so I was thinking (hoping) that the
> > signal from HD to MythTV to TV would be high quality enough. Is there
> > a limit to how high Myth will tune an HD card, or is it a limit of the
> > card? Is anybody using Unencrypted HD on Charter? I'm in Massachusetts
> > and my TV is a Vivitek 46D1. Thanks.
>
> The person I'm building a MythTV network for, my father, lives in
> southern New Hampshire and also has Charter Cable.  I did a little
> research and found that you will likely need to upgrade your
> rented-from-Charter set-top-box to something that uses Firewire (at
> least that's my understanding of the matter).  The following web page
> shows connections to the DCT6200, a Firewir-capable set-top-box that you
> can rent from Charter:
>
> http://www.charter.com/Visitors/Support.aspx?SupportArticleID=1156
>
> A quick search of the MythTV wiki shows that people have been connecting
> that set-top-box to MythTV networks for over a year now.
>
> My father is currently renting the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3000,
> which is Firewire-less.  We're going to be requesting a switch to the
> DCT6200 once the backends get built.
>
> *SPECULATION - or, Educated Guessing*
> That being said, maybe I'm missing something.  Take a look at this:
>
> http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/hdhomerun/channels
>
> When I add our zip code I get a big table.  The second table shows
> Digital Cable QAM-256 channel information.  I have to admit that I don't
> quite understand the columns.  The channels have two columns to define
> one of them: Channel and Program.  That makes me wonder if there isn't a
> lot of stuff happening behind the scenes where, say, "Cartoon Network"
> is actually a "program" within a wider "channel" (such that each channel
> has multiple programs that set-top-boxes and TVs map to
> human-understandable Channels).  I'm making a guess here, but that
> appears to be the case.
>
> That being said, what QAM does your television support?  Is it QAM-256?
> The higher that number (I believe the max is 256 at this point), the
> more data can be physically pushed through a cable.  Perhaps your TV
> can't read that high?
> *END SPECULATION - okay, no more guessing*
>
> One last thing to check:
>
> http://forums.bham-lug.org/viewtopic.php?t=1233&sid=360746fe40a6b3f513d28fd397c2f0c1
>
> In that forum, people appear to be talking about something very similar.
> The first reply makes it seem like you should be able to read those HD
> channels (in the 700s?) with a tuner card.  I will be testing once our
> system is built.  Anyone else have any insight?
>
> - Eric


Thanks for the info. One thing I'd like to clarify is that I'm trying to set
this up without an HD box. My understanding of QAM is that it will pull the
HD symbol over the wire without the need of a box. My current box is a
Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3200 (SD, no HD) hooked up to a Tivo. I have yet
to hook the MythTV box up to anything other than a straight coax cable
input. I may upgrade the box to an HD capable one, but I'm trying to get the
most out of my current setup first.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20070916/09a9f27b/attachment.htm