[mythtv-users] QAM question - cable providers & changing channel mappings?

[Peter Watkins]

Mark J. Small wrote:
> On April 8, 2006 05:06 pm, Steven Adeff wrote:
> 
>>On 4/8/06, Mark J. Small <msmall at eastlink.ca> wrote:

>>>I'm thinking about taking the leap and getting a card that can do QAM
>>>decoding for my cable system.  My biggest worry is this; what happens
>>>when the cable system changes its channel map?

>>>I know that the channel map changed recently on my system,  and there is
>>>nothing stopping my provider from changing it again next week.

> I was bored one day, and found the frequencies for all the digital channels 
> using the service menus of my cable box.  I don't have the energy to do it 
> again right now, so it could be that many of the frequencies have changed.  
> 
> My point is that if my cable system does this again, then there is no way for 
> me to know about it until my recordings start to fail.  This would really 
> stick if it happened at the beginning of a 2 week vacation...
> 
> My cable company is planning on adding several new channels soon, so I really 
> don't know how much the digital channels will jump around.  Failed recordings 
> would really mess up my WAF.

I've got the same concerns. I've tried to read up on FCC guidelines (I'm
in the United States) regarding "must carry", etc., and never found
anything terribly clear. I even wrote the EFF (eff.org) and received a
nice response saying, basically, the FCC does not have clear guidelines
for QAM, even regarding channels that are "local" broadcasters.

My provider (Comcast) has maybe 80-90% of the local ATSC broadcast
channels also in clear QAM. And hundreds of QAM channels I can't tune,
presumably encrypted content. Beyond carrying some locals in clear QAM,
I found a few cable-only channels. Very few clear QAM channels had
useful PSIP (?) labels.

I would love to see legislation that clearly required cable providers to
 - make all local broadcaster's HD/ATSC available in unencrypted QAM
 - make all "basic tier" channels available in unencrypted QAM
 - clearly label (PSIP) all unencrypted QAM channels
 - not change the frequency/aid/vid QAM settings for any channel that
   they're required to make available in unencrypted QAM without
   notifying all subscribers (who ask for such notification?) with the
   exact change, exact date/time of the change -- and provide such
   notification at least 8 weeks in advance

As it stands, when I add my 2nd HD card, I intend to use it for QAM only
for the channels I can't pick up OTA (including the unencrypted
cable-only channels), and continue using my "silver surfer" antenna and
ATSC for those I can get OTA -- just to avoid missing a show because of
cable provider QAM-mapping shenanigans.

>>if you want cheap entry, the Avermedia A180 works great with kernel
>>2.6.15 and can be had for ~$70, which I think is the cheapest QAM
>>capable PCI card available right now.

> I've been eyeing that one, thanks.  

It looks like a much better card (physically) than the HD3000 -- much
better connectors, stress relief on the coax jack, etc. But then I think
the HD3000 is unusually poorly designed for a card w/ a coax jack. But
my A180 is back in the box. Word is that its kernel drivers conflict
with the i2c drivers for the Hauppauge PVR-350, and I'm using the
PVR-350 IR receiver (with lirc_i2c) for my remote. LIRC became
unreliable (would miss IR events) as soon as I put the a180 in my box
(FC4 loaded its drivers automatically). So I've removed the a180 and
have to get another IR dongle working for LIRC to receive my remote
control's IR commands. I tried for a while to get an old Belkin
SmartBeam serial dongle to work, but though lirc_serial and lirc_dev say
they found it, mode2 and irw couldn't see any activity. So I hope to get
a StreamZap USB receiver working, even if I have to remove the PVR-350
entirely.

It would have been far easier to buy another HD3000 and keep using the
PVR-350's IR dongle; maybe I should have split the difference between
the $70 a180 and $170 HD3000 and tried the $120 Air2PC HD5000...

-Peter
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