[mythtv-users] Comcast Equipment Update

Tom Bongiorno tbjr at bongohut.com
Fri Sep 9 01:58:29 UTC 2016


On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 5:56 PM, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net> wrote:

>
>
> On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Gary Buhrmaster <gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 1:06 PM, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net> wrote:
>> > Comcast sent me a letter yesterday indicating that if I don't replace my
>> > set-top boxes by Oct. 31, I might start losing channels.\
>>
>
> From the responses in this thread, it seems that this may be just about as
> bad as I feared. I am going to most likely lose my HD-PVR tuners which have
> served me faithfully pretty much ever since the HDPVR-1212 was originally
> released. There does not seem to be any way that I can be sure that my
> replacement boxes will have component interfaces and a way to change
> channels via firewire. (The latter issue could maybe be overcome with an IR
> blaster)
>
> Where I live, the only alternative to cable is satellite. Century Link has
> TV service, but my particular neighborhood still has 1970's-vintage wiring,
> they have never been able to deliver decent DSL speeds, so I doubt their TV
> service will work either. I don't know if satellite provider boxes won't
> have the same issues as the Comcast ones do, there's no way to know what
> I'm going to get.
>
>
>
>>
>> What box do you currently have?
>>
>
> I've got three old Motorolas.  A DCT-6412 (a two-tuner DVR box), a
> DCH-3200R, and a MORN150NR. All of these have component outputs and accept
> channel changes via firewire (6200ch for the first two, mythchanger works
> on the latter). At one point I actually used the DVR box as a Myth tuner
> via HD-PVR and only used the DVR function as an emergency backup. Now I
> just have it hooked to the upstairs TV (still used as an emergency backup)
> and the other two boxes are hooked to the HD-PVRs.
>
>>
>>
>>
>> * In Comcast markets, except for the premiums, an OCUR
>>   tuner is almost always the preferred solution for recording
>>   content.  It works with the minimum of hassles.
>>
>
> I am beginning to think that the only way to save my MythTV system is to
> get something like the HDHomerun Prime and a dedicated NIC to connect it
> to. My major reason for hesitating there is that I really really hate to
> lose those HD-PVR's; they weren't cheap and they are still working great,
> so it's a big loss. I'm not worried about the expense of a cable card, as
> it probably costs lots less to rent than the two set-top boxes I have now.
> I have heard some horror stories about trying to get the damned thing
> activated though; not looking forward to that. The money saved on equipment
> rental will probably pay for the expense of a Prime before too long. So I
> am seriously considering going that route, it just sucks to take the
> financial hit of losing good working equipment and I'm not looking forward
> to the headaches and down time of switching tuner types. But that's
> probably what I'll do once I get over being pissed off about all this.
>
>
>>
>> * Local offices may (or may not) have any particular box
>>   available to hand out.  They may try to satisfy your
>>   request for a particular model (if they have it in the
>>   back room), but they will not (and can not) get any
>>   particular model.
>>
>
> That's mostly what I thought. When I got my old boxes, HDMI was just
> coming into vogue and lots of people still had TVs with component and
> composite inputs only. So pretty much every box they had, had componentand
> firewire, so it didn't really matter which box they gave me. That seems to
> no longer be the case (I suspect not by coincidence, the MPAA has been
> trying to kill the analog hole for years).
>
>
>
>
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>
>
Sell them on eBay. Not only will you save money each month, but your
recording file sizes will be smaller. The picture quality will be better
too. I always thought my old HDPVR softened the picture too much. Just
note, you will lose premium channels.

I have used NTSC tuners, QAM tuners, ATSC tuners, Firewire capture, and
HDPVR capture. Switching to my Ceton InfiniTV 6-tuner was the best move I
ever made with MythTV. Everything got much easier and more reliable when I
switched.
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