[mythtv-users] Recommendations for Satellite Provider in North America

Mark fairlane at springcom.com
Fri Mar 12 11:19:32 UTC 2010


Ozzy Lash wrote:
> It looks like Comcast has enabled the "Digital Content Protection" on 
> basic cable channels in my area today (Naperville, IL, Romeoville Head 
> End I think).  I sat down to watch "The Daily Show" and noticed that 
> the recording file didn't exist, did a scan with my hdhomerun and 
> found that basically all of the non-advertising non-local channels 
> were marked as encrypted.  I sent off a nastygram to comcast, but I 
> assume that will lead me nowhere.
>
> So, I had looked at DISH and DirectTV in the past, saw that the would 
> be cheaper, but since I was getting most of what I wanted on comcast 
> without having to have a bunch of boxes/ir blasters/hdpvrs... I stuck 
> with comcast.  Since comcast has lost it's competitive advantage with 
> me, I need to do some digging to figure out which is better.
>
> I'll connect my HDHomerun to an old antenna in the attic to get OTA 
> stuff, which will get 80% of the recordings I want,  but I can think 
> of about 6 channels that I would like to record quite a few shows 
> from, Bravo, Comedy Central, History Channel, Discovery Channel, TLC, 
> USA.  There are probably a few others as well.
>
> Anyone have any recommendations?  I know I'll need to get a box that 
> provides Component Video out, and get an HDHomerun.  I'll need to 
> figure out how to control the box (probably an IR blaster).  I may 
> need to upgrade a few of my front ends to use VDPAU.  Any other 
> gotcha's? 
>
> Thanks for any input.
>
> Bill
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I have Dish, my neighbors have Directv.  I've seen them both for about 
10-12 years.  I believe the costs are about the same, the HD boxes are 
about the same,
the dishes are about the same, etc.  They're very competitive.  You 
should probably select them based on what channels you want, and/or what 
deals you can get.
And you will need an HD-PVR, not a HDhomerun.  I have an IR blaster 
changing channels on my vip211.  Works flawless.  You'll want VDPAU for 
your frontends.
the HDPVR output is h.264 and a bit much for non-accelerated decoding.  
I use an atom/ion motherboard for frontend.  low power, quiet and flawless.


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