Which tuner should I get

[m1abrams]

So I need to upgrade my last SD tuner in my Sage box. Currently I have an HDHR for tuning locals an HD PVR connected to a Comcast cable box for tuning all encrypted HD channels and an old SD hauppauge tuner connected to a second Comcast box for SD channels and basically handling conflicts.
Well now that pretty much all TV watching is HD I can not stand to watch shows recorded on that old card and need to upgrade it.

I have been pretty successful with the HD PVR. My box does have room for a PCI express card. Should I get a Colossus? I did read conflicts with the Colossus and the HD PVR, have those been resolved?

Any other options for someone on Comcast to record encrypted Comcast channels?

Thanks

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by m1abrams

Any other options for someone on Comcast to record encrypted Comcast channels?

It seems like there are many Comcast subscribers who are using either the Ceton card or the HDHR Prime successfully. You might want to verify that the channels that you are interested in are flagged "copy freely" prior to spending money on this solution. I wish I had that option, alas my only cable provider choice is BrightHouse Networks, and they flag all of their channels as "copy once". So neither choice is an option for me, I'm stuck with either HD-PVR or Colossus for HD cable content.

[bnh]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

It seems like there are many Comcast subscribers who are using either the Ceton card or the HDHR Prime successfully. You might want to verify that the channels that you are interested in are flagged "copy freely" prior to spending money on this solution.

i'm one of those and i agree with that. I'm using the Ceton, but i had no idea how to verify the copy flag prior to my decision. I was resigned to purchasing the ceton or the prime, trying it out and returning it if wasn't going to work...although, my fallback was to see if a WMC/Xbox solution would afford some usability (which appears there is some but woefully lacking compared to sage.)

IMO, the safer route would be the collosus, as i don't believe the copy flag setting would be relevant in that setup. however, for some reason i've never liked the idea of having multiple STB's stacked up next to the sage server.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by bnh

i had no idea how to verify the copy flag prior to my decision.

I have a Motorola STB, I googled and found the Motorola installation manual which describes how to get to the diagnostics screens. In the case of Motorola, there is a Current Channel Status diagnostic screen that displays the CCI flag. It's a little bit of a pain, but you can figure out which channels are copy freely, copy once, etc. Your Comcast STB probably has a similar manual that you can find via google.

p.s. Keep in mind, just because your cable provider sets the CCI flag to copy freely today, doesn't mean that they will tomorrow.

p.p.s. FWIW, if I had the option to use a Ceton or HDHR Prime, I'd dump my HD-PVR and Colossus in a heartbeat...

[voorhees]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

It seems like there are many Comcast subscribers who are using either the Ceton card or the HDHR Prime successfully. You might want to verify that the channels that you are interested in are flagged "copy freely" prior to spending money on this solution.

I am also one of those on Comcast; however I went with the HDHR Prime. I checked the CCI flag status for all of the channels that we regularly watch using the diagnostic screen on a cable box (it took a while but it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling before purchasing a new tuner even though Comcast can change them at any time). For me everything except premium channels were copy freely, so I picked up a Prime and started down the path. I use a HD-PVR with the aforementioned cable box to get the premium channels the Prime does not get. So far it has worked pretty well. There was a couple of hiccups at the beginning but it is working really solidly now and has for a while (thanks so much babgvant for SageDCT!). For me the Prime was the right way to go since my SageTV server is WHS v1 and I did not want to switch over to Win 7 for my SageTV server or have another computer with the Ceton in it that was either dedicated or I had to think twice before rebooting it. I like the flexibility the Prime provides, even though it does have one less tuner than the Ceton. Plus, it gives me a nice networked CableCard tuner solution for WMC just in case I need to move on from SageTV in the future.

[m1abrams]

Well my sagetv is running on WHS. so I may give the hdhr prime a try.