[mythtv-users] Can Myth 'tune' these 'free' converter boxes?

[scram69]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 9:58 PM,  <stefan_jones at comcast.net> wrote:
> ----- "scram69" <scram69 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> From: "scram69" <scram69 at gmail.com>
>> To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 9:50:30 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
>> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Can Myth 'tune' these 'free' converter boxes?
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > There are no posts on the link you gave for the Bay Area since April,
>> > 2008 so that's probably all changed.
>> >
>> > Once possibility might be to tune the STB using either 1394 or the IR
>> > Link and then record in analog using my old PVR-150's? Same quality
>> > we'd get from the free tuners but access to all the subscribed
>> > channels I think...
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Mark
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
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>> Mark,
>> According to Silicon Dust
>> http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:95030#lineup_1135827
>> comcast is currently providing 127 channels in Los Gatos unencrypted
>> over QAM.  You don't need their HDHomerun (although I would highly
>> recommend it), any QAM tuner will do.  There's an outfit in Livermore,
>> Retek Direct, selling myth-compatible ATI HDTV Wonder PCI cards for
>> $14 a piece on fleabay.  I'm using one now, for when I need to record
>> Disney, Sprout, and PBS all at the same time :)
>
> DO NOT GET USED TO IT.
>
> For about six months I was wallowing in the joy of 100 or so clear QAM
> stations.
>
> Over the last week Comcast encrypted everything but the local broadcast QAM
> channels, some government and local access stuff,  and a few odds and ends
> (Discover, CSPAN, some Spanish language stations). NOTHING ELSE!
>
> Right now I'm trying to get an IR blaster up and running so I can connect
> PVR-150 to a set top box. That will let me record from the "good" cable
> channels.
>
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>
>
The "free" converter boxes Mark describes do not have
encryption/decryption capability.  The encryption you describe would
imply that Mark, or any of the other many thousands of comcast
subscribers who have received these cheap boxes would no longer have
access to the content for which they are paying...