Future of recording HDTV

[sixdoubleo]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

I'm not Stanger but it is an addon from here.

http://www.nextcomwireless.com/r5000/home.htm

You have to send them your box and they mod it..

Oh, I see...so basically it works with an assortment of different boxes. Gotcha. I was thinking the R5000 WAS a box. Got it.

Has anybody done this with a Comcast Motorola box?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by sixdoubleo

Stanger,

Do new Dish subscribers get the R5000 box or is that something you have to be grandfathered in on?

See above for what the R5000 is, but basically you have 3 options:

Buy/own a supported box, and send it in to be modded.
Send them a leased box (telling them it's leased).
Buy a pre-modded box and then activate it.

[trini0]

I'm beginning to have fearful thoughts of losing HD myself.
I recently moved into a condo, and antenna moutning options are very limited.
With all the new options via D* or cable, I'm not sure if putting up an antenna is worth the effort any more.
But $500+ per STB is steep. I may start budgeting for it though...

[mistergq]

now with this solution, are you only getting unencrypted channels, or encrypted channels that you subscribe to as well?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by mistergq

now with this solution, are you only getting unencrypted channels, or encrypted channels that you subscribe to as well?

which solution? R5000-HD, QAM, or firewire?

With R5000-HD, you get all channels that your STB can tune to that you pay for. Basically, you will get everything you pay for, with some possible exceptions with SD digital STBs perhaps not being authorized to receive HD channels per the Cable company.

With QAM, you get all unscrambled channels that the CC sends out open QAM'ed, such as your local channels and maybe a few other digital channels.

With a Firewired STB, you get any unencrypted channels that the CC sends out without 5C encryption. That may range from zero channels, to just your locals, locals plus a couple other digital channels, or to everything that you subscribe to.

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

which solution? R5000-HD, QAM, or firewire?

With R5000-HD, you get all channels that your STB can tune to that you pay for. Basically, you will get everything you pay for, with some possible exceptions with SD digital STBs perhaps not being authorized to receive HD channels per the Cable company.

With QAM, you get all unscrambled channels that the CC sends out open QAM'ed, such as your local channels and maybe a few other digital channels.

With a Firewired STB, you get any unencrypted channels that the CC sends out without 5C encryption. That may range from zero channels, to just your locals, locals plus a couple other digital channels, or to everything that you subscribe to.

The R5000-HD. Thanks. That is what I thought, but with the HD world, I always ask to make sure I am on the same page.

[SprDtyF350]

This may be answered somewhere but I can't find it. Is there a way to tell what is 5c'ed coming from my cable company without having a STB? I do not want to get a box just to find I already get the same stuff with QAM on my HVR-1600.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

This may be answered somewhere but I can't find it. Is there a way to tell what is 5c'ed coming from my cable company without having a STB?

Nope, no way that I know of to tell without an STB. YOu could go to a neighbors house and use theirs to find out by going into the setup menu and checking there. But that would be a lot of work to do every channel.

I do not want to get a box just to find I already get the same stuff with QAM on my HVR-1600.

why not, no contracts. Just pick one up from the office and if it doesn't work, take it back. If they want to be dicks about it, your out 1 month's rental.

[SprDtyF350]

So with a box what are you specifically looking for? Say a box from Comcast? I guess there is a menu somewhere but what tells you if 5c or not?

[ke6guj]

You would need to go into the service menu. I don't recall the exact procedure. My sister "borrowed" my STB's remote since I never use it, so I cant confirm. But basically, you turn off the STB while on a specific channel and then hit the menu? button, A "bios" screen will come up and have tons of data. You're gonna look for stuff like DRM: 0x00 or 5c: 0x00 depending onthe STB. Motorola and Scientific Atlantic have different menus. You would need to go into the menu for each channel you wanted to check.

[SprDtyF350]

Thanks. Might have to find, or go get a box and see what works..

[stanger89]

TSReader might be able to display copy control data. I know it will show encrypted state for anything on the line, can't remember if it was smart enough to understand the "5C" flag.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by eobiont

I live in a heavily wooded area and so will never be able to receive Dish. Believe me, if I could stuff cable, I would have long ago.

Maybe you could receive Dish if you put up a tall enough self-supported tower, and put small dish on top of the tower. How tall are those trees? It should be possible to calculate how high you need to be to clear the trees to receive the satellite signal. The tower wouldn't have to be taller than the trees depending on the horizontal space between the trees and the tower.

Dave

[White94Cobra]

FYI - I contacted the FCC a few months ago because all of my cable HD locals are encrypted. Their response was basically they can do that as long as they provide unencrypted analog. There is no requirement to carry in-the-clear HD locals.

Unfortunately the digital broadcast of my local NBC station is off the air about 50% of the time (they are currently down for an estimated 1+ months). I'm stuck with no HD source for NBC

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by White94Cobra

FYI - I contacted the FCC a few months ago because all of my cable HD locals are encrypted. Their response was basically they can do that as long as they provide unencrypted analog. There is no requirement to carry in-the-clear HD locals.

Yeah, lots of people seem to think there's a requirement for cable companies to carry locals "in the clear", which is not the case. If you go look at the actual FCC requirements, I believe they say nothing more than the locals have to be carried in the most basic package. Further, as the FCC eluded to, there's no requirement to carry digital locals at all, just that the channel must be carried (and the analog version counts).

One more complication, it's up to the local stations whether they want to opt to be under the FCCs "Must Carry" clause or if they wish to work out their own arrangement with the cable company. Our local CBS affiliate opted for the later, and as a result of that (and a contract dispute) they pulled their station from the cable company for several weeks last fall.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Yeah, lots of people seem to think there's a requirement for cable companies to carry locals "in the clear", which is not the case. If you go look at the actual FCC requirements, I believe they say nothing more than the locals have to be carried in the most basic package. Further, as the FCC eluded to, there's no requirement to carry digital locals at all, just that the channel must be carried (and the analog version counts).

One more complication, it's up to the local stations whether they want to opt to be under the FCCs "Must Carry" clause or if they wish to work out their own arrangement with the cable company. Our local CBS affiliate opted for the later, and as a result of that (and a contract dispute) they pulled their station from the cable company for several weeks last fall.

My only question is how 2009 and the transition from NTSC to ATSC will affect this - with OTA required to be ATSC, will the cable companies need to carry the ATSC broadcast in the clear, and will they be allowed to downgrade it to an NTSC broadcast?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by sandor

My only question is how 2009 and the transition from NTSC to ATSC will affect this - with OTA required to be ATSC, will the cable companies need to carry the ATSC broadcast in the clear, and will they be allowed to downgrade it to an NTSC broadcast?

Don't know, a coworker and I were discussing something similar, what happens to satellite (Dish/DTV) in 2009 when their analog local feeds go away...

Presumably, both Cable and Sat will need to provide downconverted, SD versions since neither will want to force all their customers to upgrade to HD boxes to receive the locals.

[kevine]

This will get put off and put off just as it has been put off to 2009. I don't know if this was the original date but I know the deadline used to be 2006.

[stanger89]

There's probably a decent chance it will actually happen in 2009, unlike the last deadline, most stations now have their digital versions on-air, and Best Buy has pulled all analog TVs from shelves:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...Z_vHwD8SB3BF80

You basically have to make an effort to buy an SDTV today. Oh, and it's probably been said before, but I really do believe that 2008 is the year of HDTV. One only need look at DirecTV and Dish Network's HD lineups to see that, scarcely a single "major" network you can't get in HD anymore these days, that plus, Tranformers did surprisingly well (190,000 copies in one week) on HD DVD.

We may finally have reached the tipping point.

[kevine]

Hope you are correct.