Need Advice New Comcast Digital Boxes?

[thomjw]

Hi All,
I've been using SageTV with my two PVR-150 hauppage cards for a few years now with no problems. (Cable lines connected directly to both cards). Now, these Comcast Cable company are forcing our area to use a digital cable box for each tv (by the end of this month). I hope someone on here is using SageTV with these digital cable boxes and can tell me what to get. Once I get their cable boxes, can I connect the cable coming out from them to the PVR-150's I have, or do I have to get new tv cards for the computer? Also, how do I have SageTV change the channels on the cable boxes? Like I said I will have two cable boxes because I have two tv cards in the computer so I can record two shows at once. (Sons of Anarchy and Caprica both play at 10pm on the same night!)
Thanks for any advice on this.

[Homebuilder]

Hi,

The pvr 150s record analog signals over coax cable. The cable boxes while digital in nature should have a coax cable output for older TV's so yes, they should work fine. As for changing channels, look up the usb/uirt in the sage store:
http://store.sagetv.com/mm5/merchant...tegory_Code=HD

or here

http://www.usbuirt.com/



That can be used to tune up to three boxes.

You may also want to look into firewire recording from the box.
good luck!

[Spectrum]

SyFy gave Caprica the axe. They currently have Star Trek TNG re-runs in its time slot and are not even going to air the remaining episodes that they have in the can until the off season.

So if that was the *only* reason for getting 2 cable boxes you can save the rental of 1 box.

[KarylFStein]

When Comcast made me switch to digital, they gave me one digital STB and one DTA for no rental fee. Both only have coax and composite out. Your 150s accept both, but I chose coax--1 cable vs. 3 for composite, (video + R/L audio). No firewire on either, so I use the USB-UIRT for changing the channel on them. You'll be out the $50 or so for the USB-UIRT and a little time in SageTV re-configuring the tuners and remote codes, but after that should be fine. The video signal isn't as sharp, (not that SD is anyway), and the box shows its own "info" bar for a few seconds after a channel change.

[blade]

You can get 1 set top box and 2 digital transport adapters (I think that's the limit) for no additional monthly charge.

The set top box is the traditional box that most people are familiar with. It will be able to receive all the channels that are included in your package. It will have multiple types of outputs such as HDMI, component, composite, etc... The exact types of outputs will depend on which model box you get so be sure it has the type of outputs you need for your particular setup. If you intend on connecting the STB to the PVR150 you'll want to make sure it has S-Video or Composite (I think all of the boxes do composite). Using a STB should provide better quality than the DTA. The output should be better quality to start with and you'd be bypassing the tuner in the PVR-150. I have no idea how big a difference it would be though.

The digital transport adapters are tiny boxes that should be able to get most of the channels you subscribe to. For example I have the digital starter package and it can't receive VOD or any of the digital music channels. I don't think they can receive the subscription channels such as HBO. The only output they have is a coax connector. You'd connect the coax from the DTA to the input of the PVR-150 and then set it up in Sage.

As mentioned before you need something like the USB-UIRT to change channels on the boxes. It runs about $50.

If you do a forum search for "dta" there are plenty of threads where people are discussing using them with Sage. I glanced at a few of the threads and noticed some of the people saying the HDHomeRun and other QAM tuners can receive the same channels as the DTA. This is not true (at least it's not supposed to be).

When Comcast first started rolling out the DTAs they weren't allowed to use the encryption capabilities of the boxes. So in order for customers to receive the channels they subscribed to they had to be sent in the clear (unencrypted). This allowed any QAM capable tuner such as the HDHomeRun to receive them. This is why so many people think a QAM tuner can receive anything a DTA can. The FCC made a ruling allowing cable companies to use the encryption capabilities of the DTA for a limited amount of time. I don't recall off hand how long and it may of course get extended or made permanent. This allowed Comcast to start encrypting the channels that were previously sent in the clear since the DTAs can decrypt the signal. That's why you'll read so many posts where people are complaining that they lost almost all of their clear QAM channels.

If your area does things like they're supposed to the local networks should be in the clear and available with a QAM capable tuner. The rest of the digital startup lineup should be available through a DTA with the exception of VOD and possibly the digital music channels. Everything else you subscribe to will need a set top box.

Sorry for rambling and you may have already known most of it. I just noticed there was a lot of conflicting information in some of the threads regarding DTAs and thought I'd try to clear some of the confusion up.

[thomjw]

Hi again,
Thanks guys, for the information. Now I can go down to the Comcast office and bend over, I mean, get their stupid boxes. It's just annoying that they are messing with something that wasn't broken. Anyway, thanks for clearing this up for me, now I should be able to make the switch, and still be able to use SageTV. Did I mention how much I LOVE my SageTV? I wish everything on my computers worked as well as SageTV does!

[vince100]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

When Comcast made me switch to digital, they gave me one digital STB and one DTA for no rental fee. Both only have coax and composite out. ...

What is the model of your DTA that has composite out? I thought no DTA from comcast had that function.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by vince100

What is the model of your DTA that has composite out? I thought no DTA from comcast had that function.

Ah, yes, the DTA is just coax. The STB has coax and composite.