Wonderful experience with HDHR and 6.5.17

[mcaron1234]

I've been dreading Comcast shutting of the analog channels in my area because of the hassle its always been remapping the HDHR channel in SageTV. The time finally came yesterday, TNT, Food network, FX and Bravo (along with many others I don't watch very much) all went digital only in my area. I figured it was time to take my medicine.

Before hand I backed up my SageTV directory and then updated the HDHR and SageTV software to the current beta's of each. After meticulously correcting the HDHR software channel names to match zap2it and insuring the channel numbers matched, I ran the scan in SageTV and low and behold every channel mapped correctly the first time! In the past I've always had to go back and fix the remaps in SageTV, but I am happy to say they got it figured out now. Very sweet, thanks SageTV!

[Mitch G]

Originally Posted by mcaron1234

I've been dreading Comcast shutting of the analog channels in my area because of the hassle its always been remapping the HDHR channel in SageTV. The time finally came yesterday, TNT, Food network, FX and Bravo (along with many others I don't watch very much) all went digital only in my area. I figured it was time to take my medicine.
<snipped>

Rather off-topic, but are you saying that your Comcast "basic" cable (no cable box needed) is offering these and other channels in digital? Are they the HD version of the station?

Mitch

[waylo]

Comcast is slowly moving all their "expanded basic" cable (~60? channels or so) to digital bandwidth. I think this is a nationwide trend, so different areas are affected at different times. Mine here in Oregon went all digital in May.

So no, you do not get the HD version of these channels. You get a digital version (480i) of what you were watching before. Essentially instead of an analog receiver (what was in all those old "cable ready" tvs) you need a digital QAM receiver.

@mcaron1234:
Glad you got it working without a hitch. When I transferred over to my HDHR several months ago I think there were still some bugs with the HDHR software. The great thing is that they constantly update their firmware, so it's working pretty well now. One day I will be brave enough to update (again) to their latest beta!

[srothwell]

What version of HDHR software were you running.

I had the opposite experience. Now that being said I also committed the cardinal sin..... I upgraded the HDHR software AND SageTV at the same time.

I put th latest Beta firmware in the HDHR and upgraded Sage to .17 and after scanning in the HDHR software then scanning in Sage, Sage couldn't find any channels.

I ended up restoring my. 16 version of Sage, then upgrading again to .17 and reverting to the 0527 beta version of HDHR that I'd been using since, well, May 27th to get Sage to recognize HDHR channels again.

Stacy

[Opus4]

srothwell: Start a separate thread for your issue & attach SageTV logs from a scan along with your .scn & .frq files so I can see what is happening in SageTV. I'm using 20090617beta1 with my HDHR and the latest SageTV betas w/o problems, so it should be able to work. SiliconDust just released a new beta today, so try that one.

- Andy

[mcaron1234]

Originally Posted by srothwell

What version of HDHR software were you running

20090617beta1

There is a newer beta available at their site now, but this one worked flawlessly for me. I fully expected it not to work, so I took special care to ensure every station ID and channel number matched the zap2it listings.

Good luck.

[Brent]

I just remaped with my HDHR's last night (using latest beta) and it was a breeze. Awesome job on getting this to "just work" guys!!!!

[PiX64]

Just wanted to put my experience here.

I have comcast and am in illinois Chicagos Western Suburbs. I called comcast and have done som research on this topic. What i found and was told by comcast directly (a level 2 tech not a CSR) was that the only time i woul dhave a problem is if i had OTA analog. Comcast does the digital conversion on the back end and then pumps the signal over the wire to your house. Since the digital switch i have had NO problems with my HVR1600 tuning all of my channels directly off of the cable (no STB attached) I have also noticed an increase in some of my QAM channels, but haven't lost anything at all.

It seems like everyone is having different experiences...is my understanding of the digital transition wrong here?

All i know is i have had no problems and i supscribe to comcast digital basic (lowest package available).

Am i missing something?

Directly from comcast website
"Comcast customers: Any TV in your home connected to Comcast will continue to receive all local broadcast channels."

Also from comcast site
"Current Comcast Customers
If all the TVs in your home are connected to Comcast, you were ready and not affected by the transition."

~Mike

[Mitch G]

Mike:
I think the confusion is that this Comcast digital transition has nothing to do with the DigitalTV Transition that occurred on June 12.
It's just Comcast looking to save bandwidth (my guess).
And, it's not happening in all markets.
The OP's situation was that Comcast was changing some cable channels to be digital instead of analog and so had to retune with his hdhr.
It doesn't sound like Comcast is doing that in the Chicago area yet.
(Although I have Wideopenwest and so don't know for sure.)

So, bottom line is that you're probably fine. Or, to put it another way, if everything is working for you, don't fix it.


Mitch