Colossus + DTA

[fefelover]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to know if anyone has had any success with Colossus and Comcast HD DTA? Recently Comcast encrypted all of our Clear QAM channels in the area rendering my Hauppauge 2250 useless. I picked up a Colossus, and got it to work great with my larger HD STB from Comcast feeding thorough the HDMI connection, as well as the Component connection. I would like to strictly use the HD DTA via the HDMI port that Comcast now provides, but I can't seem to get things going.

I managed to install fine, but when I try to watch live TV there is no picture or sound, yet I can view the on screen channel display, along with the DTA menu in SageTV. I just get a black screen, but I am able to see the channel numbers as I change channels. I did test the box via HDMI on my HDTV, and both picture and sound displayed correctly. I imagine I might need additional hardware, or is this setup not possible? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!


Fefe

[Tiger62]

Your problem is that the HDMI output from the Comcast HD DTA has HDCP enabled and your Colossus, being a recording device causes the output of the DTA to be a black screen with no audio. That's how HDCP works ;-) However, one of these will solve your problem.

[fefelover]

Thanks for the help, Tiger! This is exactly what I needed. I ordered from Amazon, and it received it today. Now my picture, and sounds are working beautifully.

Also, I see you have a Colossus card as well. Have you had any luck setting up the IR blaster with SageTV? I'm thinking of getting one of the USB ones instead.

Originally Posted by Tiger62

Your problem is that the HDMI output from the Comcast HD DTA has HDCP enabled and your Colossus, being a recording device causes the output of the DTA to be a black screen with no audio. That's how HDCP works ;-) However, one of these will solve your problem.

[Tiger62]

and I've been using the Sage Directv Serial Control on the USB port for my STB for several years. It works flawlessly! If I ever have to replace my DTV receiver (an H20), I'll probably try to go the Ethernet control route.

Speaking of the Colossus...
I have discovered that there is a conflict of some sort between SageTV and the Collossus in the Live TV Viewing mode if I have Cyberlink PowerDVD installed. I had version 7.3 of PowerDVD installed when I started fooling with the Colossus and I had awful problems with video AND audio in TV Viewing mode but the recordings seemed to be OK. Almost accidently, I upgraded PowerDVD to Ver. 11 and now Viewing Live TV in Sage works perfectly (keeping fingers crossed!;-) I did some research and learned that the earlier versions of PowerDVD shared the Cyberlink codecs with other applications but the newer versions don't. I don't quite understand it all but upgrading PowerDVD sure improved my experience with the Colossus!!! I wonder how many other posters that say they are having Colossus problems also have an earlier version of PowerDVD installed.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by Tiger62

I wonder how many other posters that say they are having Colossus problems also have an earlier version of PowerDVD installed.

Or don't have PowerDVD installed at all...

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by Tiger62

Your problem is that the HDMI output from the Comcast HD DTA has HDCP enabled and your Colossus, being a recording device causes the output of the DTA to be a black screen with no audio. That's how HDCP works ;-) However, one of these will solve your problem.

Some of the reviews on Amazon complain about these things running hot then dying. Anyone using these here seeing this problem?

[Tiger62]

Mine isn't even warm!

[davephan]

Back when I had Comcast cable TV I setup two DTAs and one HVR-2250. If you set one DTA on channel 3 and the other DTA on channel 4, you can run both DTAs into one signal combiner, then feed the output of the signal combiner into the one HVR-2250 RF connector. If you don't use the signal combiner, the channel 3 & 4 signals interfere with each other and it does not work. A simple splitter won't work. The signal combiner is cheap, less than $30.

In the end, I stopped using the DTAs because the quality is lousy. I later dumped Comcast. Eventually, I picked up Dish. I will be dumping Dish as soon as the contract is over. Locals and Netflix are enough for me now.