[mythtv-users] MythTV and Comcast On Demand

Brian Bosch bdbosch at gmail.com
Thu Oct 13 16:07:41 UTC 2005


On 10/13/05, Steve Adeff <adeffs at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thursday 13 October 2005 07:40, jesse k wrote:
> > This would make sense. It does appear that Comcast can query my
> > set-top box but cannot receive information in return. The only
> > concern I have with the splitter is that if I remove the amplifier and
> > power supply from the setup, On Demand is still not available. I
> > naively assumed that the splitter had no directionality when I bought
> > it. I should test this by putting the input on one of the outputs and
> > vice versa. I will also check that my amp is cable modem compatible.
> >
> > On 10/12/05, Carl Fongheiser <carlfongheiser at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On 10/12/05, jesse k <kirchner at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> > > > I have a MythTV/Gentoo box which is working very nicely. I've
> managed
> > > > to enable all the functionality I want other than getting premium
> > > > channels to work (the various HBOs). This is fine with me as On
> Demand
> > > > obviates the need to record those shows. However, the hardware I've
> > > > used to split and amplify my cable signal seems to interfere with
> the
> > > > On Demand service.
> > >
> > > On Demand most likely requires use of a return channel, which your
> > > amplifier may be blocking. If you can find an amplifier compatible
> with
> > > cable modems, you likely will have found one that will work for you.
> The
> > > splitter is most likely not the problem -- the frequency range you
> quoted
> > > is adequate for cable modems and digital cable on most systems.
> > >
> > > Carl Fongheiser
>
> you need splitters and amps that are "digital cable ready", they have
> wider
> bandwidth frequency response and allow for bi-directional communication.
> They're more expensive than the regular amps and splitters though. I've
> also
> found the cheaper units tend to "die" easier. I went through 3-4 cheap
> units
> from radioshack,etc. before splurging on a good amp, after which I never
> had
> an issue.


On 10/12/05, Chris Ribe <chrisribe at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've encountered similar problems doing installs for people, but
> unfortunately I don't know what the solution is (one time it turned out that
> the problem was a temporary and neighborhood wide, but it just happened to
> commence while I was punching down the distribution block in someones
> basement). I've heard that Comcast will provide an amplifier if one is
> necesary.
>
A good way to troubleshoot this would be to either connect the cable box
directly to the feed coming into your house, if possible, and test to see
how it works. If it works fine then you can re-introduce splitters and
amplifiers one-at-a-time and see at what point your problem re-appears.

Of course that could be a real pain, depending on where everything is
located... You could also replace the suspect splitter with a new "digital
cable ready" one, leaving the amplifier out of the equation for now, and
test to see if that improved your VOD situation. If it does then you can add
the rest back one-step-at-a-time to see if any other problems are
introduced. FWIW, I actually found some pretty good splitters at Home Depot
which work fine for me with Comcast.

Also, calling Comcast and playing a little dumb might work as well; don't
mention Myth, just say that VOD doesn't work. You may coincidentally be
having other problems completely unrelated to your home as mentioned
previously. Who knows, they may be able to run some tests from their end and
possibly even query your cable box and find something out that way...

Good Luck!

-- Brian..
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