WHat to expect if I decide to switch to a cable card setup

[Hunter69]

I currently have 2 collossus and a hd homerun (qam). I am contemplating switching to a hd homerun prime but I am not sure what to expect. This is would be my reasoning for switching:
1. Faster channel change.
2. Get rid of the 2 cable boxes, I currently rent from the cable company.

SO I have been trying to soak up as much info as possible. What has me concerned is the capability to record?

I can't seem to find a thread that discusses the advantages of a cablecard setup versus a standard tv tuner type setup.. I appreciate people taking their time to share he/she experience in this matter..

[tmiranda]

First make sure your digital channels are marked "copy freely". If they are "copy never" or "copy once" yo will not be able to view them in SageTV - only WMC.

Look through the SageDCT thread for a wealth of information: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...hlight=SageDCT

[stevenkd]

I just went through this. I have 2 DCP-501's that Comcast does not charge me for, but they use a lot of electricity and take up a lot of room. The DCP-501's run into a Hauppauge PVR-500 card that has 2 tuners in it. I installed a Ceton 4 tuner cable card. I was running Windows XP and Sage version 6. I took the plunge and upgraded to Windows 7 and Sage 7. I was worried about the Windows upgrade as everything I read said I needed to backup any files I wanted to keep, but with 3.5 terabytes of data that was not possible. Another member of this forum advised me to just do a clean install of Windows 7 and format just the C: drive. I copied my entire SageTv directory to another drive, then did the clean install of Windows 7. It worked great. I then upgraded to Sage 7, which went pretty easy also. Once I had everything working I installed the Ceton card. I was a little confused as to whether or not I had to install Windows Media Center, but I was finally able to get the data off the tuner card with the Ceton software. I was able to get SageTV running with the Ceton card through SageDCT. The only channels I don't get are the premium channels of which I only have Encore. I tried to get Media Center running to get the premium channels, but it kept failing. Ceton support was great, they suggested I disable the PVR-500 and it worked after that. I was then able to enable the PVR-500 and everything still works. So I get everything except Encore through SageTV and I have 1 of the Ceton tuners allocated to Windows Media Center for the Encore channels. The only other issue I ran into was my Sage server PC kept locking up consistently and I had to go into the control panel in Windows 7 and set sleep mode to never. It has been running fine for the last week so I am getting ready to shut down the DCP-501's.

[Hunter69]

I have been reading through that thread (have not read it all though). My question is, how do I determine which channels are copy freely etc without buying the tuner first?

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by Hunter69

My question is, how do I determine which channels are copy freely etc without buying the tuner first?

Most STBs have a diagnostic menu that allows you to view the contents of the CCI flag, among other things. Search the internet for the manual(s) that are available for your STB, it should tell you in there how to get to the diagnostics menu. For my Motorola STB, it was a tedious process, I had to go channel by channel, so be prepared to spend some time.

[stevenkd]

Originally Posted by Hunter69

I have been reading through that thread (have not read it all though). My question is, how do I determine which channels are copy freely etc without buying the tuner first?

Perhaps someone in your area already has done this research if you put your provider and area in.

[ranger]

Originally Posted by Hunter69

I have been reading through that thread (have not read it all though). My question is, how do I determine which channels are copy freely etc without buying the tuner first?

IN general if your cable company is Comcast their corporate policy is that all basic and extended basic channel should be copy freely. Local offices don't always follow policy, but with a little work you can get the local office to fix it. Other cable providers do what ever they want. Any of them can change policy without notice at any time.

[Hunter69]

I believe optimum is a cablevision affiliate.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by Hunter69

I believe optimum is a cablevision affiliate.

Cablevision and Optimum are one in the same. I live in Long Island, NY and have Cablevision/Optimun and cable card services. Which I believe are owned by LightPath, Time warnner or they own Light Path and Time Warner owns them - not sure on that one, but there is a chain that links them all together.

In short after many emails and letters, I have all extended basic channels except Science channel marked as copyonce, for some reason the Science Channel is copy protected and for that is not going to change according to Cablevision.

My curent setup is an HDHomeRun for QAM and the Prime is for the rest of the non premium channels and two STB's via HD-PVR's. The QAM setup was while I was waiting for them to resolve CBS being marked copy protected ...

Anyway if your up for a fight and lots of aggrevation (CableVision) go for it, you will still need the STB's as well to view premiums.

One thing that drives me crazy is, if you leave the STB on one channel for too long 6-8 hours it will ask you to press "Select" to continue watching then if you don't the channel it goes to "Not authorized". That is a Cablevision thing and not the STB (Samsung 5230). Anyway that's my story.

So in short I believe your account by default is set to "Copy Once" and you need to request it to be changed, many times equling months in my case, to be changed. At least that is what was explained to me.

-Skybolt

[Fuzzy]

It shouldn't really be a per account thing, but a per head-end thing. The CCI flags are generated at the head-end, so they should be the same over your entire area. Once fixed for one person, they should be fixed for all others. Moral of the story, get your neighbors and friends to also complain about it.