[mythtv-users] Comcast Equipment Update

[Tom Bongiorno]

On Fri, Sep 9, 2016 at 11:32 AM, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net> wrote:

>
> On Fri, Sep 9, 2016 at 7:32 AM, Gary Buhrmaster <gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> But while CableCARDs
>> are mandated to still be viable for seven years(*),
>> viability will, as always, be in the eyes of the
>> beholder.
>>
>
> Thanks to everyone who replied on this thread. It appears that the
> situation, as it always does when Comcast is involved, sucks for anyone who
> doesn't want to be trapped in their corporate silo.
>
> It is clear that my HD-PVRs are dead now,  or at least as soon as Comcast
> finishes making whatever format changes they have in mind (they gave a date
> of Oct. 31; I don't know if that's a hard deadline, but I have to assume it
> is). The HD-PVRs of course will still work, but the set-top boxes they
> depend on will no longer be usable, and the replacement boxes Comcast
> offers will likely not work.
>
> For the present, I can most likely keep my MythTV system going for a few
> more years by switching to a CableCard-based tuner, so that's my immediate
> plan. I don't get any premium channels so I don't care that those are not
> available this way, but I understand that channels may start gradually
> becoming unavailable to this tuner, so I will have a crappy Comcast DVR box
> to catch those (at least the new crappy DVR looks to be considerably better
> than the old crappy DVR, but of course it will never have 8TB of storage or
> instant commercial skip). If enough channels that I watch regularly become
> unavailable, then that will be when my MythTV system will be declared dead
> and I'll have to get another set-top box for the basement TV and rely just
> on Comcast DVR.
>
> This depressing picture holds unless the laws change radically in this
> country (USA), but since the MPAA owns our politicians, it seems unlikely
> to change in my lifetime. For now I have ordered an HDHomerun Prime and a
> USB 3.0 NIC. I realize a dedicated NIC isn't really required, but I have no
> free ports on the basement switch where the backend lives and I have
> problems with my current HDHomerun tuner producing unwatchable recordings
> about half the time (OTA). This could be due to packet loss (seems unlikely
> since all my network switches are gigabit, but they are also crappy
> consumer-grade Netgear switches), bad reception (I have no way to tell if
> that is happening), or maybe the HDHR power supply (these are infamous but
> I'm pretty sure I've already replaced it once). At any rate this is a pain
> to diagnose, and a USB NIC is cheaper than buying a switch with more ports,
> and using a dedicated NIC at least eliminates one possible cause of issues
> for a networked tuner.
>
> --Greg
>
>
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>
It will be interesting to see what finally comes out of the open set top
box initiative of the FCC. My guess is that set top boxes may be phased out
in favor of apps that run on your favorite streaming device. Comcast
announced that we will get our first taste of this option later this year
in the form of a Roku channel and Nvidia Shield app. These apps should have
access to live TV, cloud DVR, and on demand. Only time will tell if it will
have a full feature set and a good user experience. I guarantee that they
will not have commercial skip. Universal search will probably be available
though. At least there will be no set top box rentals.

-Tom
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