[mythtv-users] Question for Chicago Mythtv ers

[Dewey Smolka]

On Feb 12, 2008 8:00 PM, Douglas Hitchcock <clarkaddison at gmail.com> wrote:
> When Comcast went all digital, I told them to shove it and I went to RCN.
> Well, RCN just did the same thing, so my mythtv computer now has zero
> channels.
>
> I have a PVR 250 and a 350, and I only a regular def TV so I'm not ready to
> go High def yet.  What are people with Analog pvr cards doing in Chicago?  I
> mean I know in general my options, IR Blaser, Serial port, Firewire, but I
> don't know what options my local Comcast or RCN will actually give me, and
> which works best.  So I'm just looking for some Chicago success stories.  I
> read the threads talking about when Comcast went digital, but I didn't find
> any conclusions as to where these people are at now!
>
> Thanks!

I'm in Chicago, and wrote the posts you're probably talking about.
RCN's not available where I'm at so I'm still with Comcast (grrrrrr).

I wrestled with firewire for a bit -- more to control the STB than to
get the HD channels but I couldn't keep it stable enough for my
liking. You may have more luck, but it just seemed too much of a PITA
for me. Plus for firewire you'll need to get a box with an enabled
port., e.g. DCT6200. I'm not sure what RCN does, but Comcast resists
giving you one of these boxes without an HD subscription until you
start quoting FCC regulations at them, and then they charge you
$5/mo/box. This will give you the OTA HD channels but you have to pony
up another $5/mo for their cable HD channels, which you can't get into
Myth anyway.

Fortunately the IR blaster approach has come a long way since then.
You can still go the serial port IR blaster route, which will take a
bit of tweaking but there's a lot of good resources and walkthoughs on
it. I ended up getting a MyBlaster, which uses a perl script rather
than lirc but I don't think they're available any more.

Another option is to check the wiki and the list archives for the
Microsoft MCE remote. I believe that the blasters included with that
unit are now supported and the remote itself is very good. If it is
supported, it comes with two blasters, meaning you'll be able to
control boxes for both your cards.

Good luck