[mythtv-users] Firewire unstable.
Tom Bongiorno
two.bits.11 at gmail.com
Tue Feb 21 18:16:48 UTC 2012
On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 11:50 AM, Aaron Russell <aaron at therussells.me>wrote:
> The pvr 150 was orginally set to take analog form the cable box before i
> started using firewire. I was looking at the DCR-2650 from hauppauge as a
> replacement for my cable box. Is that worth it?
>
> I have another question about these solutions. Am i restricted by the same
> 5c encryption i find on firewire?
>
> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 11:42 AM, Tom Bongiorno <two.bits.11 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org>wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 9:32 AM, Aaron Russell <aaron at therussells.me>
>>> wrote:
>>> > 3. Should i try to get fios to give me a new cable box and hope the
>>> new one
>>> > is
>>> > better?
>>>
>>> This is probably your best bet, but it's really a shot in the dark. I
>>> had a lot of trouble recording via firewire with Comcast and a
>>> DCH-3200. I switched to Verizon for a few months and had better luck
>>> with their box, but switched back to Comcast for other reasons and
>>> ended up with an identical looking DCH-3200, but this one seemed to
>>> work fine without the problem I'd had before.
>>>
>>> > 4. I also have a pvr150 in the mythtv but i believe its dying because
>>> i get
>>> > really crappy quality from it. The cable box is only 10% of my
>>> recording so
>>> > what
>>> > are my other option. I dont want to spend much because its such a small
>>> > amount
>>> > of recordings.
>>>
>>> Understood. It does cost some more money, but I can tell you that the
>>> cable card solutions are all much more stable and reliable than
>>> firewire. If you can find the budget for a HD Homerun Prime or Ceton
>>> InfiniTV it takes all the voodoo out of the process of getting mythtv
>>> to record encrypted cable.
>>>
>>> Eric
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>
>>
>> The cause of your woes may not even be the hardware but rather the
>> software/firmware on the cable box. Comcast pushed an update a few months
>> ago, and I lost all Firewire capability. The good thing was that I
>> switched to an InfiniTV 4 a few weeks prior. The Firewire was barely being
>> used, but changing channels for my HDPVR. If you are able to eliminate a
>> cable box rental, than a CableCard solution may pay for itself. A HDHR
>> Prime or InfiniTV 4 PCIe/USB all have a street price of under $200, and
>> continue to fall in price.
>>
>> As I have said many times, I love my InfiniTV 4 PCIe. Thanks to Ron
>> Frazier's source patch, it is the most reliable tuner I have ever used.
>> Now if I could only figure out my LiveTV ringbuffer timeout problem, I
>> would buy a second InfiniTV 4 and stop renting two cable boxes.
>>
>> What is your PVR150 being used for? Is it just another tuner from
>> another cable box or analog cable? If so, all the CableCard solutions
>> would save you from having to replace the PVR150. If it is used for
>> premiums, then the CableCard solutions will not help.
>>
>> -Tom
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>
>>
>
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>
>
I didn't mention the DCR-2650, because I thought it was not supported.
Apparently, I was wrong. I would say it is worth it as it will pay for
itself in under a year if it replaces one cable box rental @ $10/month.
Twice as fast if you consider the fact that it has two tuners. On top of
that, you do not have to pay to replace you PVR150. Even if CC goes belly
up in a year, you are in the black.
The thing that you really need to worry about is not encryption, but rather
copy protection. The cable box and CC does the decryption. Firewire copy
protection is technically different than CC copy protection, but you will
find that, as a general rule, you will be able to get the same channels
with both methods. There are some exceptions that you hear about from
time-to-time, but they are rare. It primarily depends on your provider.
The big thing is that the CC solutions are much more stable in my
experience and can pay for themselves in the long run.
-Tom
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