[mythtv-users] Comcast switching to MPEG-4 in Portland, OR, October 27, 2015

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Sun, Oct 11, 2015 at 1:01 AM, Dick Steffens <dick at dicksteffens.com> wrote:
.....
> From the SiliconDust website I think I see that my model supports MPEG-4,
> but I'm not 100 percent sure.

The HDHomeRun Prime is stream content/format agnostic(*)
(it just moves the bits in the MPEG2-TS container based
on the PIDs selected).  That the stream encoded in MPEG2, or
H.264, or even (a theoretical future) H.265 does not matter
to the Prime.

Note that while the HDHR Prime is format agnostic, there are
some (usually much older) GPUs that may be challenged
with H.264, or if you are running a really old MythTV version
you may have to upgrade (or a really old system that is
right on the edge for software decoding).

In most markets Comcast (in their bills and letters) tell
you to tune to a channel to verify if you can display
the content.  Try to (manually) record and play a few
minutes (in Atlanta, the first "major" market after the
test bed, there was also a Golf channel for testing in
addition to the barker test channel).

It should be noted that some (older generation) TiVo owners
are likely impacted too (and since according to most counts
the plurality of CableCARD renters are TiVo owners, that
is probably why they told you to check your CableCARD).






(*) There is a function in the latest Prime firmware which
can be requested to scan/detect all channels, and it tries
to determine if the content is protected (copy once/never)
and whether the content is HD or not.  The results are not
100% accurate in all cases anyway, but for H.264 there
are anecdotal claims that the accuracy is worse.