[mythtv-users] Comcast Equipment Update

[Aaron Longchamps]

On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 9:58 PM, Tom Bongiorno <tbjr at bongohut.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 5:56 PM, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Gary Buhrmaster <
>> gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 1:06 PM, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net> wrote:
>>> > Comcast sent me a letter yesterday indicating that if I don't replace
>>> my
>>> > set-top boxes by Oct. 31, I might start losing channels.\
>>>
>>
>> From the responses in this thread, it seems that this may be just about
>> as bad as I feared. I am going to most likely lose my HD-PVR tuners which
>> have served me faithfully pretty much ever since the HDPVR-1212 was
>> originally released. There does not seem to be any way that I can be sure
>> that my replacement boxes will have component interfaces and a way to
>> change channels via firewire. (The latter issue could maybe be overcome
>> with an IR blaster)
>>
>> Where I live, the only alternative to cable is satellite. Century Link
>> has TV service, but my particular neighborhood still has 1970's-vintage
>> wiring, they have never been able to deliver decent DSL speeds, so I doubt
>> their TV service will work either. I don't know if satellite provider boxes
>> won't have the same issues as the Comcast ones do, there's no way to know
>> what I'm going to get.
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> What box do you currently have?
>>>
>>
>> I've got three old Motorolas.  A DCT-6412 (a two-tuner DVR box), a
>> DCH-3200R, and a MORN150NR. All of these have component outputs and accept
>> channel changes via firewire (6200ch for the first two, mythchanger works
>> on the latter). At one point I actually used the DVR box as a Myth tuner
>> via HD-PVR and only used the DVR function as an emergency backup. Now I
>> just have it hooked to the upstairs TV (still used as an emergency backup)
>> and the other two boxes are hooked to the HD-PVRs.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> * In Comcast markets, except for the premiums, an OCUR
>>>   tuner is almost always the preferred solution for recording
>>>   content.  It works with the minimum of hassles.
>>>
>>
>> I am beginning to think that the only way to save my MythTV system is to
>> get something like the HDHomerun Prime and a dedicated NIC to connect it
>> to. My major reason for hesitating there is that I really really hate to
>> lose those HD-PVR's; they weren't cheap and they are still working great,
>> so it's a big loss. I'm not worried about the expense of a cable card, as
>> it probably costs lots less to rent than the two set-top boxes I have now.
>> I have heard some horror stories about trying to get the damned thing
>> activated though; not looking forward to that. The money saved on equipment
>> rental will probably pay for the expense of a Prime before too long. So I
>> am seriously considering going that route, it just sucks to take the
>> financial hit of losing good working equipment and I'm not looking forward
>> to the headaches and down time of switching tuner types. But that's
>> probably what I'll do once I get over being pissed off about all this.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> * Local offices may (or may not) have any particular box
>>>   available to hand out.  They may try to satisfy your
>>>   request for a particular model (if they have it in the
>>>   back room), but they will not (and can not) get any
>>>   particular model.
>>>
>>
>> That's mostly what I thought. When I got my old boxes, HDMI was just
>> coming into vogue and lots of people still had TVs with component and
>> composite inputs only. So pretty much every box they had, had componentand
>> firewire, so it didn't really matter which box they gave me. That seems to
>> no longer be the case (I suspect not by coincidence, the MPAA has been
>> trying to kill the analog hole for years).
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
> Sell them on eBay. Not only will you save money each month, but your
> recording file sizes will be smaller. The picture quality will be better
> too. I always thought my old HDPVR softened the picture too much. Just
> note, you will lose premium channels.
>
> I have used NTSC tuners, QAM tuners, ATSC tuners, Firewire capture, and
> HDPVR capture. Switching to my Ceton InfiniTV 6-tuner was the best move I
> ever made with MythTV. Everything got much easier and more reliable when I
> switched.
>
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>

Agreed, the Ceton InfiniTV Eth 6-tuner with Comcast works very well; I've
had one for almost a year and been pretty happy with it. The only thing you
won't be able to do with MythTV on Linux and the Ceton card is the premium
movie channels, as they're not Copy Free.

-Aaron
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