comcast encrypts everything

[edmc]

Originally Posted by johnwmreed

However, I can not find a QAM channel for MSNBC at this time.

Many of the QAM programs are not clear as others have suggested. I, too, could not find a clear QAM channel carrying MSNBC. Odd because I could find FoxNews. YMMV obviously...

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by edmc

Many of the QAM programs are not clear as others have suggested. I, too, could not find a clear QAM channel carrying MSNBC. Odd because I could find FoxNews. YMMV obviously...

I would not expect MSNBC to be available in clear QAM because it is strictly a cable channel. FOX should be available in clear QAM in any city that it is available OTA. In general, whatever channels are available for limited (min. cable service) should be available in clear QAM.

[Fluffdaddy]

Msnbc has been in the clear in Philly for over two years, but you are right I wouldn't "expect" it to be. The only cable channels that are in the clear are
Universal-HD and Msnbc both are my personal must have channels. So I been lucky so far.....for a change

[waynedunham]

I received a "robo message" from Comcast on the phone last night. Their fear mongering message was that as of blah blah date they were moving a whole slew of channels off analog to the digital tier and I needed to call them to get digital boxes.

I hung up because I already have digital boxes at each Tv plus an HD box hooked to my HD-PVR (going to get a 2nd HD box for a 2nd HD PVR I just got). Plus as of right now all those channels they're moving to digital are in the clear so my 2 HDHomeRun's (4 tuners) are very happy with all the stuff they can record.
The TV in my bedroom can get clear QAM so I can get all those channels without the box also. If they do pull enough content off the analog tier I can get with my 2 PVR-500s (4 tuners) I may have to pull the digial boxes and give them to one of my PVR-500's.

With the tone of the message and how its worded, what I'm wondering is how many people are they going to sucker into getting boxes that don't really need to have them if all they want is the old analog tier and have QAM capable TVs?

[jervin]

I too am looking into the complexities of finally getting a comcast STB
so I can get the additional channels. I had been getting loads of stuff
via clearQAM, but that all stopped last week. Now all I get in the clear
are the broadcast channels.

So,...the hdmi output from the STB is useless as an input to sagetv.
I have a hauppauge tuner card with ATSC and clearQAM,...but that
only works if I can get a coax input.

Will the STB output only hdmi, or will it output the decrypted channel
tuned via the STB onto a coax, say in the clear so I can feed it to my
sagetv box?

Joe

[davephan]

SageTV will still work, but it might cost you more. You could get HD-PVRs and HD set top boxes, and a USB-UIRT to control the channels on the set top boxes (unless you rather try using the HD-PVR IR blaster).

Comcast is also dropping analog channels in our area. We just received a notice in the mail. They said a "digital adapter" will be needed for all TVs that do not currently use a digital set top box or a cable card. Comcast said they will provide up to two digital adapters for free. After that, each digital adapter is $1.99 per month. A digtal set top box starts at $2.49 per month.

There's hardly any clear QAM now, so I use my HDHomerun for OTA digital. My 2250, used for analog TV, will probably be worthless without two digital set top boxes.

Does anyone know what exactly a "digital adapter" is compared to a digital set top box?

Dave

[Fuzzy]

if all you can get on cable via QAM is your locals, I'd recommend just getting an antenna and going ATSC instead. Most likely, the quality will be much greater, and you don't have to worry about the cable company changing things around on you. The HDHR is GREAT for OTA reception. Then, if you TO still need some other channels, you can go with an HD-PVR or two... One may even be enough for most, as cable channel seem to repeat quite often.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by davephan

Does anyone know what exactly a "digital adapter" is compared to a digital set top box?
Dave

Mine is in the mail from Comcast, so can't say for sure, but I did research it a bit. Basically, it has COAX in and out, (no svideo, composite, etc.) and a switch on the back to set output to go to channel 3 or 4. It has it's own remote. The idea is you set your TV to channel 3 and then use the DTA remote to tune channels, (and you can program it to turn on/off the TV and change the volume). In other words, a real old-school STB without any functionality but tuning channels and transmitting the output to a single channel. (Oh, and I guess some decryption piece...)

I ordered a USB-UIRT and am hoping that the following will work:

* Plug the DTA into an analog port of my 1800
* Manually tune the 1800 analog port to channel 3
* Set up the USB-UIRT to change the channel on the DTA (there are some config files in the forums here somewhere)
* Use firewire to control the channel on the STB (fallback to the USB-UIRT) and plug it in to the other 1800s SVIDEO port
* Use the 1800s digital ports with my antenna for local HD broadcasts (I know that works fine)

So, I'm out $58 for the USB-UIRT, but am really hoping that this will retain the service I used to have with analog cable.

[davephan]

Could you let everyone know the audio and video quality level of the "digital adapter"? From your description, I am guessing that the quality might be lower than using a digital set top box and S-video or component video. In the past, when I've compared the channel 3/4 output of the set top boxes, it has always been lower than the other set top box outputs.

If the quality is too low, then they could be used on seldom used TVs. I would still have to rent digital cable boxes to get the higher quality.

Dave

[KarylFStein]

Off topic a little, or maybe back to the original topic...

I was about to move to Dish because this whole Comcast change annoyed me quite a bit and I would save some money. (The only reason I've stayed with Comcast is because I had less complexity when analog signals were available and simplicity was worth the extra expense to me. That's no longer a consideration.)

I haven't made the jump to Dish yet due to time. I didn't want to lose TV in the meantime, so ordered the STB and DTA (free at least for two years). I'm sure the switch will come, though, and the $58 for the USB-UIRT isn't wasted because I'd still need it for SageTV with Dish, but...

One big thing that has my interest on the Dish side is the VIP 922. If it lives up to the information given so far, it may be the thing that pushes SageTV out of my house. I love SageTV and the flexibility it offers, but with all this DRM crap, (which doesn't stop anything as far as I can tell--just stifles innovation for those who play by the rules), and the fact that I'd like to get an HD package down the road, it may make more sense to go with a provider's DVR. I'll wait until they're actually released to weigh the pros and cons...

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by davephan

Could you let everyone know the audio and video quality level of the "digital adapter"? From your description, I am guessing that the quality might be lower than using a digital set top box and S-video or component video. In the past, when I've compared the channel 3/4 output of the set top boxes, it has always been lower than the other set top box outputs.

If the quality is too low, then they could be used on seldom used TVs. I would still have to rent digital cable boxes to get the higher quality.

Dave

That's my concern too. Will see sometime next week...

[davephan]

I tried the Comcast DVR during the 30 day free changes time window when starting Comcast cable TV. The Comcast DVR is lousy compared to SageTV that I could not stand to use it for more than an hour. The Comcast DVR is very limited with a very clunky GUI. I discovered the Comcast DVR was free for six months. After the first six months was over, it would be $18 a month for one Comcast DVR. One HD set top box was already included, so I traded the DVR for two more HD set top boxes and end up with about the same monthly cost.

I used to be on DirecTV and Dish Network. If you choose either of those, you need a HDHomerun for the OTA channels. When you have bad weather, at least you'll be able to watch and record the locals. The USB-UIRT works good on both DirecTV and HDHomerun boxes.

I didn't see anything in a VIP 922 that it was a solution for anything but a one-room solution. When you record a video in one room, you'd have to watch it in the same room. If the VIP 922 downloads video content from the Internet, you'll need to make sure it does not download too much, especially if you have Comcast Internet, since they will cut you off for a year if you exceed their download limits.

I think you're better off if you setup SageTV so it is relatively easy to switch between providers. When one provider jacks up the rates, switch to another provider.

Dave

[KarylFStein]

The VIP 922 is SlingLoaded. You can throw to a TV with a Sling Catcher, or watch over the Internet / LAN on a PC. (It has a TV2 output, but only SD while Sling does HD.)

It also has an antenna input with two OTA tuners, so my tuner count would stay the same as now, (two from the provider and two OTA for HD local channels). This way I wouldn't have to get any HDPVRs.

The 922 hasn't been released yet, although rumors are sometime next month. If it matches what's been talked about it, it seems to be a major step up from what's out there now...

[Fuzzy]

There were rumors it would be released in spring of 2009 I think as well. Don't hold your breath.

As for dish as a service, I have been happy with them for years. (though I'm using three ViP-211's with R-5000HD mod's). Before the mods, I was running them via S-Video, and was actually happy for a long time that way. And dish DOES carry locals for most major markets, so the HDHomeRun isn't necessarily required.. locals are $5/month though. (Their tuners DO support have OTA tuners built in, so you can use that and not pay the extra).

[KarylFStein]

Yeah, lots of rumors out there about the 922s. Spring '09 is when *Dish* said it would be released. Obviously that didn't happen .

[mechling-burgh]

I live in Pittsburgh and the conversion is suppose to happen this Tuesday I think. I hooked up the two Pace tuners last night. I bought a USB URT and set up the zones on it. I attached the IR emitters to the front of the two tuners and covered them with electrical tape. They seem to change fine, but a lot slower at changing channels than the mce 150 and 500. The 150 receives one signal and the 500 receives the other, I have the second tuner on the 500 getting the Svideo from the HD STB. I use firewire to change the channel on the HD STB and also capture the HD over firewire on that box so I have to manually make sure there is no conflicts between the Svideo and Firewire. I was thinking of getting an HDPVR to capture everything but I was wondering if the quality would be lower than the Svideo capture on the SD Channels I record.
I did record one of the kids show today and I took a quick look at it earlier tonight. I thought it didn't look any worse than the normal analog maybe even a little better since it is coming in digital then being converted by the box to analog.

[davephan]

Was the audio quality any worse with the "digital converters" than the analog audio quality?

Dave

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by mechling-burgh

I was thinking of getting an HDPVR to capture everything but I was wondering if the quality would be lower than the Svideo capture on the SD Channels I record.

I don't see why the HD-PVR would produce lower quality than the 500 with S-Video. It'll probably be a bit better, as the encoder in the HD-PVR would be less likely to introduce artifacts (H.264 is far better than MPEG2).

I would check to see that your STB can use native switching though, so that SD shows are output in 480i, that way the STB isn't needlessly scaling the image to 1080i.

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by mechling-burgh

I was thinking of getting an HDPVR to capture everything but I was wondering if the quality would be lower than the Svideo capture on the SD Channels I record.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I don't see why the HD-PVR would produce lower quality than the 500 with S-Video. It'll probably be a bit better, as the encoder in the HD-PVR would be less likely to introduce artifacts (H.264 is far better than MPEG2).

I would check to see that your STB can use native switching though, so that SD shows are output in 480i, that way the STB isn't needlessly scaling the image to 1080i.

Fuzzy is correct. Having recorded SD with S-Video with the PVR 150 and SD channels on my HD PVR, the SD recording quality significantly improved when I started recording with the HD PVR.

[mechling-burgh]

I think the sound is fine it's in stereo according to the movie info screen. I did record a one minute clip I was going to upload but it was 30 megs. I think I'm going to look into the HDPVR so I can record all my shows from one source instead of having it act as two. It would also be a fall back if Comcast decides to encrypt the firewire HD output.