Moving from DirectTV to Comcast; Need Help

[jaydub]

Sorry for the imprecision of my original post. I'm moving this post to the Hardware Support forum. I'm changing providers from DirecTV to Comcast and need some help on the new hardware. I've done some research on the Sage forum and elsewhere, along with Tiki's comments in this post:

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/sho...hlight=xfinity

I think the new setup I need with Xfinity X1 is:
Bedroom where I have my PC: Sage, Colossus and X1 RNG150N (Non-DVR) with Unpaired Remote for IR.
Living Room (No PC): XG1 DVR with Paired Remote for RF (might as well).

Hopefully someone can confirm this makes sense.

Regarding the IR remote setup for Colossus/Sage, Tiki said his setup was:
Digits per Channel: 4
Channel Change Prefix Code: None
Channel Change Confirm Code: OK
Delay Between Codes: 200 msec
Delay Between Channel Changes: 600 msec
IR Blaster Repeat Factor: 3

Are these changes to Sage or Colossus?
Do I directly edit a file to get this, and if so, what is the file name?
Or are these found in the Sage program (where?) or Hauppauge blastcfg applet? I'm not seeing these choices in either.

Many, many thanks for help on this.

[jaydub]

So I went to a Comcast store to pick a RNG150N. Unfortunately, they no longer provide these boxes as they are phasing them out. They offered up a an XG2v2-P, which is the current X1 non-DVR model. However, there are two issues:
- Not sure this model can be used in conjunction with the Colossus IR-Blaster. There doesn't seem to be any IR receiver window on the STB. Where on the STB would I tape the Colossus emitter? In any event, I've read on this forum that the current X1 model STB's don't seem to be working with the Colossus when it comes to channel changing.
- I would need a three-way splitter (Internet, TV1 and TV2). Comcast says a three-way splitter will not work with X1, only a two-way splitter will work. So a second cable line will need to be installed for TV2. Given that I don't even know if the XG2v2-P will be compatible with the Colossus IR Blaster, that didn't seem like an appealing option.

I see that there are RNG150N's on ebay. Does Comcast allow users to provide their own boxes? If so that might be an option, but would I really need to get a tech to run a second line, or would a three-way splitter work?

Jeees. If I can't come up with a viable comcast solution, looks like I will need to stay with DirecTV. Are the Colossus and HDPVR at the end of their useful lives as far as cable TV goes if you can't get modern STB's to work with it?

[trk2]

Well you already know my recommendation which is to buy a HDHomeRun Prime and go cable card. That would give you 3 tuners with perfect quality capture and you wouldn't have to mess around with blasters as channel changes are handled over the network. Should you choose to go that route, I would be happy to assist you in getting up and running.

[JustFred]

I'll second the recommendation to go with HDHR Prime + CableCard.

In the SF bay area, one of the BIG problems with using the Comcast STB + IR Blaster is the fact that Comcast is continuously changing the channel numbers on their program feeds. And they change faster than the EPG can keep up with them. This means that Sage is often burping out a channel number to the STB for a station that no longer lives at that #.

On the other hand, with HDHR Prime + CableCard, there is no such problem with the channel #s changing, because the CableCard handles that automatically. And with CC, the picture quality is much better than the HDPVR. And you won't have to fight the HDPVR's periodic lockups. There's no montly charge for the 1st CC, but they often do charge for a STB.

[jaydub]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I need to be able to record premium channels onto my PC with HDMI splitter. I can't think of anything that is non-premium that is worth archiving. Perhaps I need to change my ways. I may take you up on that offer Trk2.

[trk2]

So there is an option available to use cable card with premium channels. It involves using windows media center which can record premium channels.
There are a couple different variants available. You can run WMC full screen on your media server with your dvi/hdmi out from the computer connected to your Colossus. Channel changes are controlled by Sage communicating to WMC over TCP/IP.

The other variant would require a media center extender (like an xbox 360). Sage would record the xbox output via your Colossus. Channel changes are all handled by Sage through a blaster to the xbox 360, which then controls media center. One of the cable card tuners can be reserved for premium channels leaving you two tuners available for non-premium channels. It's a bit of a hackneyed work around, but I understand it does work rather reliably once everything is configured.

[jaydub]

Interesting. As I recall WMC ties the recordings to the motherboard and other hardware, does it not? So if you get a change out hardware, the recordings won't play back. Has that changed?

[trk2]

Sorry, I'm really not that informed on WMC. If you're interested, you can PM KryptoNyte who can probably answer all your questions regarding using WMC with Sage. He might chime in here anyways.