[mythtv-users] HDTV reception via Cable

Daniel Kristjansson danielk at cuymedia.net
Thu Mar 9 03:10:06 UTC 2006


On Wed, 2006-03-08 at 21:25 -0500, Jesse Guardiani wrote:
> I just called Charter Cable and they say you can't tune HD using coax.
> They require a receiver and HDMI, etc. No firewire support either.

If you are in the USA and are getting HDTV they are required by law
to give you a Firewire capable receiver upon request, which must
provide you with unencrypted access to at least OTA HDTV broadcast
channels.

Now getting one is often akin to pulling teeth, and I would not expect
them to succeed on the first try, but they are breaking the law if they
tell you firewire is not available. You should ask to speak to their
manager. If this fails to get the proper response, get their name and
write down the time you called. Use this information in your letter to
the public service commission in your area, CC the cable company. In
my experience a team of their best cable techs will show up within a
week with a Firewire capable box and copious apologies.

But also a QAM-64/256 card will usually get most of basic digital cable,
in my case I get C-Span-x, SpikeTV, SciFi, and Comedy Central. Those are
the only channels on cable that I watch, but dozens of other stuff shows
up with MythTV's scan on my system, most are QAM-64 and some are
QAM-256.

-- Daniel



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