[mythtv-users] Replacing Comcast DTAs

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 7:59 PM, Craig Huff <huffcslists at gmail.com> wrote:
> I just got the latest pricing schedule with my Comcast bill (and more
> importantly I finally accomplished the upgrade of my MythTV system from
> 10.04 [shocking! But, hey, it was d__n dependable!] to Mythbuntu 14.04 with
> the latest updates, and hopefully I can keep it that way).  My quad pack of
> DTAs will now cost me $16/mo, so now that I can use something more modern, I
> was looking into the Ceton InfiniTV units I had had an eye on.  Seems that
> all their products are out of stock at Newegg, so I was wondering if there's
> another sea change afoot that I'm not up to speed on.  Are the Ceton cards
> (and boxes) obsolete? Has cablecard been scrapped? What gives? And more
> importantly, are there any other alternatives to consider besides the
> HDHomeRun boxes? For what it's worth, I'm still on a CRT-based TV, so SD is
> good enough.

CableCARD(s) still exist and work fine.  As for Ceton, Amazon still
had stock (when I just checked), so it may be just a Newegg issue
(they may have had a run over the last few days, since I doubt they
stock large numbers).

It should be noted that with Windows 10 Microsoft has finally killed
WMC, and while W7 and W8.1 will be "supported" until 2020/2023,
the future is clear that WMC has a drop dead date, and Ceton hung
their hat on the WMC world in the consumer space (they also have
a commercial/hospitality market), so they presumably have to decide
what they want to be when they are forced to grow up in a few
years (as their primary consumer sales target dries up).  SiliconDust
has some of the same issues, but have started their own DVR
project for a possible life after WMC.  I would hope that Ceton has
something to say at CES in January.  I expect that as people
upgrade to W10 and loose WMC, the Ceton and HDHomeRun
CableCARD tuners are going to show up at the "new-to-you"
sites in increasing numbers over the next months.  There may
be deals to be found (or not).