[awp0]

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice and options now that Comcast is beginning to encrypt my (formerly unencrypted QAM) channels. This will be happening in about two weeks. Here is my current setup, which has been working really well:

* Windows 2012 without MCE
* ArgusTV backend, with XBMC PVR add-on
* HDHomerun QAM tuner
* Roughly 15 unencypted QAM channels
* SchedulesDirect for channel listings

Unfortunately I am too far from the broadcast towers to get reliable channels OTA.

According to the letter that I received recently, Comcast will offer me a free cable box or CableCard (for two years) to ease the burden. However, I'm having trouble understanding if either of these will help me get high definition content into XBMC? I only need my local broadcast channels (i.e. "limited basic" channels). Would a CableCard like the HDHomerun Prime tuner work for this? I've read that XBMC only supports CableCard for channels that don't have "copy never" or "copy once" flags, but I have no idea how to validate how these channels are configured.

I'm fully aware of Aereo, which I evaluated a couple of months ago. It was okay, but not up to my expectations regarding quality and reliability. More importantly, I really like managing my whole media experience through XBMC.

Thanks in advance.

[majorsl]

Hello,

If Comcast is like Time Warner (for me) they likely will set their flags to copy-once, making the HDHomerun useless with a CableCard.

I'm using TW's cable box with a Hauppauge HD-PVR (two actually) with the analog (RGB) inputs and digital AC3 audio. Because of the "analog hole" I can record anything, regardless of what flag they've set a channel to.

I've not noticed a difference in quality at 1080 analog vs a direct connect from the cable box to my TV. Most cable companies compress the heck out of their signal anyhow.

I don't know if the ArgusTV supports this, I'm an NPVR user. It works for our house.

[awp0]

From what I've read (and after talking to my friends) it appears that Comcast has several "copy freely" channels. So I've ordered a HDHomerun Prime, and I'm going to give it a try. I was hoping to avoid add a cable box to the stack, but we'll see, maybe I'll do that if the HDHomerun Prime doesn't work out.

Thanks for the info. It's good to know the Hauppauge works. That will be my plan B!

[awp0]

Just an update on this: The HDHomerun Prime is working well and the encryption went into effect yesterday, but I've had to switch from Argus TV to NextPVR because I couldn't get Argus to work with my encrypted channels. Argus was working well with the HDHomerun Prime until yesterday when it all stopped working because the encryption started.

In contrast to Argus, NextPVR's setup and config is quite easy with the HDHomerun Prime and SchedulesDirect. So far I have only tested the EPG and Live TV aspects of XBMC with the NextPVR plugin and things seem to be quite stable. I'll play around with time-shifting and scheduled recordings later tonight. The web interface appears somewhat full featured, but it's not the prettiest thing in the world. I've only just started playing around with it, so maybe there are skins or other tweaks to make things better.

[Mahapralaya]

I'm looking to move all my viewing to a native XBMC environment. My LiveTV are a little confounding. My local provider encrypts basic channels as well, and the set-top box they forced on me doesn't have HDMI. I've questioned them about CABLECARD support and got a hell no. So basically I'm looking at using this crap cable box with coax in and out somehow in my setup. I want to buy a HDHomerun to tune for my backend, but I'm apprehensive that it won't be able to "see" all of the channels that are usually just pushed out via the box thru "channel 3". Any suggestions?

[nickr]

Options?

bittorrent
sickbeard

Not promoting piracy, but the media companies have only themselves to blame if people do resort to that.

[negge]

I agree. Everytime I read threads like this I'm amazed at how fucked over Americans are when it comes to their TV technology.

[stuCONNERS]

live in the UK, we get really screwed

[bdp02]

I've always had the understanding that cable companies in the US are required by law to offer cable cards to customers. And that seems to be confirmed by this fcc page linked below

This line in particular:

In general, the rules require cable operators to provide CableCARDs

http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/cablecards

So, unless I'm mistaken, I'd be calling them back this morning with a "hell yes!"

[awp0]

Yeah, if you're in the US then my understanding is the same as bdp02. However this wouldn't be the first time I've noticed people having trouble with various providers, so who knows. Maybe if you raise a big enough stink and ask to speak with managers, etc, then you'll make progress here. As well, I believe part of the change that allows cable companies to encrypt broadcast channels is a requirement that they continue to provide you with options to continue receiving high definition feeds with no increase in cost. What they gave you does not sound like it provides high definition. I'm assuming *all* of your basic channels are encrypted, including the broadcast channels like NBC and CBS?

You could probably kluge this together with the HDHomerun (the non-Prime model), provided its software is designed to support a configuration that includes a set top box (and I have no idea if it does). And you'd need to find a PVR backend that can work with IR blasters to change channels on STB's. At the end of the day it would be a lot of expense and effort to have standard definition PVR support in XBMC. Not sure it's worth it, but that's your call.

First I would call them back and demand a solution that gives you high definition. Ideally that would be CableCARD, which would allow you to use the HDHomerun Prime. But even then you'll need to determine whether copy protection is enabled on your channels. Some providers add "copy once" or "copy never" to all of their channels, which would make the HDHomerun useless with XBMC. It would, however, work with Windows MCE. Hope this helps.