Alternatives to cable....

[hemicuda]

(rant)
Comcast is slowly whittling down the analog channels that are worth watching. They bumped History up to the digital tier today. I doubt the opening of the SD QAM broadcasts will happen again; probably a slip-up on their part as it didn't last more than a couple of weeks.

If I'm going to be required to have a STB for all the tuners/tvs that I want to watch those channels on, are there good options for Dish/DirecTV as alternatives? I get torqued off every time I talk to their phone-drones and their indifferent, take-it-or-leave-it attitudes. Until the local EPB gets fiber rolled out I'm afraid that the "Bend Over and...." option is all I have. CC has a 2-13 sub, but that filter might also block the clear QAM I get right now.
(/rant)

Unfortunately I'll still have to maintain a minimum cable sub to keep internet service either way I go. What cable STB models behave best w/ Sage? Worst case I can get a box or 2 and maybe that will hold me for now.

[waynedunham]

Sadly, most if not all the other options also require an STB for each channel you want to record in SageTv.


I'm also a Comcast "victim" here in Ct. Up here they've also started whittling down the analog channels. Not to mention the horrendous analog signal I get. I've had them out here several times to "fix" the analog reception. Each time it improves for a few weeks and then gets as bad or worse than before.

We keep hearing about 500, 1000 channels. What good are they when you can only record 1. Or maybe 2 if you take one of their grotesque "DVR's".

[jdamore]

I'm using just a good ol' antenna now (HDHR). No cable, no satelite, nothing but FREE entertainment.

[evilpenguin]

If Sage would add in more streaming video (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) I think I could manage with just OTA (HDTV).

[Dave62]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

If Sage would add in more streaming video (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) I think I could manage with just OTA (HDTV).

I just started using the Netflix plugin for SageMC. It works great !

[Zippster]

Hulu FTW!

[hemicuda]

No 6000 series for firewire have to make a call to the service center and see if I can get one. All they had were HD DVRs and 2000 series. Now to see if the serial port is active.

[davephan]

If you decided to switch to DirecTV from cable TV, they may offer you a better price for one year to make the switch, but you have to sign up for 18 months with DirecTV. Satellite TV does have the downside of periodic rain fade, either Dish or DirecTV. Although cable TV sometimes goes out because it isn't as reliable as satellite TV. I'm not loyal to any of the providers, I keep switching every couple of years. A USB-UIRT makes it easier to switch between the video content providers.

Whichever way you go, cable or satellite, its kind of a rip off forcing you to subscribe to large packages, 95% junk to get the 5% you want. Too bad you can't a la carte. Sometimes cutting back to just over the air sounds appealing, but it is easy to get addicted to the 5% decent satellite or cable channels.

Dave

[hemicuda]

Been playing around w/ dtc.exe with no luck so far. tried both serial and null cables. is there another file i need to test this out before mucking up my Sage config? when I change cables, dct gives message boxes that 3 or 4 things "changed state" so I'm thinking the port on the box is active.

I had this working a few yrs ago on almost the exact same box model.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by jdamore

I'm using just a good ol' antenna now (HDHR). No cable, no satelite, nothing but FREE entertainment.

Hmmm FREE entertainment more like borimg FREE entertainment if as me.

[alfi33]

Originally Posted by jdamore

I'm using just a good ol' antenna now (HDHR). No cable, no satelite, nothing but FREE entertainment.

Yep, just OTA, Netflix, and Hulu for me. I cancelled cable a few months ago. I thought I'd miss it....I don't. Well, I do miss MNF.

[davephan]

Downloading movies with Netflix or Hulu over the Internet sounds attractive. But how much can you download before your Internet provider cuts you off? With Comcast, if you download too much, they cut you off for a year. They won't tell you how much your downloading to help you control the downloading rate or the maximum download limit - they simply cut you off if you download too much in their view! I haven't been cut off yet, but it discourages me from downloading too much to go over their invisible download limit.

Dave

[hemicuda]

I remember something in the range of 250GB. AT&T air cards are only 5GB.

[jdamore]

Originally Posted by SHS

Hmmm FREE entertainment more like borimg FREE entertainment if as me.

Heres the thing.. I was looking at all my shows that were recorded and about 70% were from OTA local channels. There are some shows I miss but I couldn't justify paying almost 50$ for about 9 or 10 desirable shows from the cable.

No 6000 series for firewire have to make a call to the service center and see if I can get one. All they had were HD DVRs and 2000 series. Now to see if the serial port is active.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just get a cablecard device to allow viewing/recording on a pc with out all the DRM. I don know how that would hurt their business. At this point its very easy to record HD.. Just give us a damn cablecard and allow us tech-savy people do what we are going to do anyway! I would actually subscribe again and I bet there would be quite the handful of Satellite users switching over just so they could use this "open" cablecard device.

Hulu FTW!

What does Feeding The Wales have anything to do with Hulu

[hemicuda]

Ok, here's the scoop straight from the tech I'm talking to now:

ALL Chattanooga Comcast STB's have their serial/usb ports disabled via a software update from Q4 '07. So this knocks out the DTC software from 2 other threads.

They are checking availability of the 6200 series so I can try firewire.

The tech also said that info he has from Feb 08 said Tru2Way will be rolling out down here Q1 '09. Which probably means Q3 or Q4. That should be interesting. He claimed it wouldn't affect the current clear QAM.

[sic0048]

For over 10 years, my wife and I have had OTA because we felt that cable and satellite was just too expensive for what we would actually use. We always said that if cable or satellite would offer an a la carte offering, then we would switch.

Well, we recently switched to DishTV because they came out with the TurboHD options. Actually we got in under the original plan which give us about 45 HD channels for $29.99 per month. We do not get SD channels and we still have the OTA antenna for locals, so we don't pay the extra $5 for locals. Since I have Sage TV, we also use a HD-PVR instead of paying $5 for DVR. DishTV now has three HD only choices running from $24.99 to $39.99 per month.

The other nice thing about satellite is the taxes and surcharges are nowhere near what they are with cable. I think we pay $1.75 in taxes and that is it. So our total monthly bill is less than $32.

Actually it is less than that because we used a referral from an existing DishTV user. We both got a nice set of discounts which brings my monthly bill lower.

If you are interested in a referral code, please PM me and I'll send you the information.