Any support for Ustvnow or wowtv?

[FlyingDoc]

Having recently been cast to the wolves of Frontier from Verizon, and living where the only cable alternative is time warner I feel my access to 'Copy freely' cable channels is likely doomed. In anticipation of the inevitable I have been looking for other ways to get the few channels we regularly watch. While searching for streaming services I came across wowtv and ustvnow. I can't see any reference to sagetv being able to support these services and was wondering if something was available, possible and/or likely. I am mainly looking to be able to configure favorites and have them automatically record.

Thanks in advance for any help the community can provide.

[KryptoNyte]

I'd hold off for a few months and see how this pans out;

http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/su...formation.html

If all the Time Warner customers end up with Spectrum, then we should be copy-freely for everything but the premiums.

[FlyingDoc]

Thanks for the heads up, I was not aware of this merger.

However I would still need to be sure the channels were actually copy freely and that the new cable boxes would have a working FireWire ports to keep my current setup. This added to the cost of the bundled service is still pushing me to look for options. I probably could go OTA for the networks but if I need some level of paid service for the the few cable Chanel's I watch it would be cleaner to use that for the networks too.

The trouble I am finding is either that the streaming services need a cable subscription or are generally catchup services that don't have a schedule which makes integration in to sagetv a challenge. The ustvnow service looked different and I was hoping some bright programmer might have made some sort of "network tuner" application that would allow sagetv to select and stream a channel. I think Kodi has something like this but I really prefer sagetv.

I will keep looking.

Funny, I just posted this and not more than a few threads below in the forum I saw the webencoder thread.... Maybe this is what I am looking for, or at least close enough to be a starting point, ... Said he ..... Hopefully

[KryptoNyte]

If you did decide to go the Charter route, and it does come in copy-freely (which is the norm for Charter), you would probably be using a cablecard with a HDHomeRun Prime device (for 3 available tuners with just the one cablecard rental). Cablecard rentals are usually just a few bucks a month, no set-top-box is required. This is about as easy and clean as it gets anymore.

Regarding other web media services, about the best thing I've seen so far is tmiranda's Playon plugin. If the service is available via Playon, as many services are, that is a viable option.

Sorry I can't help with the two that you've mentioned.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by FlyingDoc

Thanks for the heads up, I was not aware of this merger.

However I would still need to be sure the channels were actually copy freely and that the new cable boxes would have a working FireWire ports to keep my current setup. This added to the cost of the bundled service is still pushing me to look for options. I probably could go OTA for the networks but if I need some level of paid service for the the few cable Chanel's I watch it would be cleaner to use that for the networks too.

If you have a spare computer that can run WMC, the Firewire tuning ability could be made a non-issue. I modified some existing open source software to tune channels in WMC like a macro. All this would require is a CableCARD tuner. Based on what looks like you recording from the STB's, I assume you already have H.264 encoders. This macro also works for any WMC extenders you might have.

[FlyingDoc]

I am actually using FireWire for recording the video as well as channel change for two cable boxes with the third going via a colossus for the Chanel's that are not copy freely. I agree the cable card/home run could work if everything is copy freely, but still stuck with expensive bundle of useless channels. Better than no sagetv I guess.

I already have playon, that is fine for "on demand" but doesn't give the "integrated user experience" for favorites I am hoping to retain.

The recent Verizon/Frontier fiasco took ~15 months after the deal was completed to see any changes so not sure how long it will be before it is likely that the CCI flags will be 'corrected'.

At least there is hope....

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by FlyingDoc

I already have playon, that is fine for "on demand" but doesn't give the "integrated user experience" for favorites I am hoping to retain.

PlayOn's PlayLater will support recording shows as they become available, a'la SageTV's favorites features. When the PlayLater folder is set as a SageTV Import folder, it works quite well, and the recordings show up in sage as they are completed.

Regarding Charter taking over, yes, I would expect it to take some time before head-ends are reconfigured to Charter's protection standards, and it may take some prodding by you at your local office to get it done, as 99+% of their customers have no idea that CCI flags even exist.

Once that is done, however, Copy Freely CableCard is by far the best solution out there. I've been using it with Charter for many years, combined with a single Colossus card and STB controlled by USB-UIRT. Has worked great the entire time, and has been more than enough to pick up the few channels I subscribe to that are NOT copy freely.