Cable TV Questions

[mightyt]

I have some questions about Cable TV choices that I will likely make in the near future. I have had Adelphia cable for many years. I have subscribed to Extended Basic and have not used a cable box. This has been pretty easy to manage with 4 tuner cards and my Sage Remote Control.

Well, recently Time Warner took over Adelphia and we will see some changes. At the same time I bought my first HDTV for my bedroom (30" Toshiba). I have no premium channels, but Time Warner will offer free Video on Demand which I think requires the cable box.

I have 6 cable drops in my house and what I am wondering is;

1 - If I go with a cable box what does that mean for my Sage tuners?
2 - Do I need a box for each room with a cable drop?
3 - Can you have some rooms with the box and others without?
4 - Is there any quality advantages to getting a box?
5 - What affect will this have on my Firefly / Girder Remote setup?
6 - Should I leave well enough alone?

Thanks! T.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mightyt

I have some questions about Cable TV choices that I will likely make in the near future. I have had Adelphia cable for many years. I have subscribed to Extended Basic and have not used a cable box. This has been pretty easy to manage with 4 tuner cards and my Sage Remote Control.

Well, recently Time Warner took over Adelphia and we will see some changes. At the same time I bought my first HDTV for my bedroom (30" Toshiba). I have no premium channels, but Time Warner will offer free Video on Demand which I think requires the cable box.

I have 6 cable drops in my house and what I am wondering is;

1 - If I go with a cable box what does that mean for my Sage tuners?

They won't be able to get the stuff you need the box to get.

2 - Do I need a box for each room with a cable drop?

If you want to access/view the stuff that needs a box.

3 - Can you have some rooms with the box and others without?

Yup.

4 - Is there any quality advantages to getting a box?

Probably not.

5 - What affect will this have on my Firefly / Girder Remote setup?

None.

6 - Should I leave well enough alone?

Only you can answer that

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by stanger89

They won't be able to get the stuff you need the box to get.

So, the Sage tuners will not be able to record anything from a cable box?

Sounds like you are saying the box would go to one TV input and I'd split off the cable before the box and connect direct to the Sage tuners ... Correct?

Thanks! T.

[ke6guj]

You have options on how you want to do it. You can leave straight cable hooked up to the tuners and Sage'll be able to still record analog cable.

IF you want to record channels from the cable box (STB), you can do a split of the cable before the tuners and run one output to the cable box. From the STB, you can run its output, perferrably composite or s-video, to an input on a tuner card. You then set up Sage to control that STB via IR blaster, serial tuning, or firewire.

IF you want to be able to record HD signals in HD, you can either attempt to hook up your HD STB via firewire and record through the firewire cable, no tuner needed for that. Basically a free tuner, but depending on the cable company; some, most, or none of the channels may be encrypted with 5C. 5C'ed channles can't be recording in Sage through firewire.

The other HD option is the new QAM tuners like the homerun tuner. With those, you can record any unscrambled digital channels that the cable company sends. Unscrambled does not equal non-5C encryption.


edit: AFAIK, Sage is unable to natively do any PPV or VOD. You may be able to manually start a PPV or VOD and then have Sage manually record the STB's output.

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

You have options on how you want to do it.

Thanks for the detailed response Jack !! I actually got most of what you said.

Gives me a bit to think about ... Up until now my Cable / Sage options have been limited, but somewhat simple to understand and implement ... Guess I need to find a Dummy book if I want to leverage what's available going forward

[ke6guj]

Just creep into it slowly. Once you start, it won't be so hard to understand.

Get a STB from the cable company and we'll go from there.

You can get either a standard digital STB ($5 per month) and record 480i signals through the s-video/composite cables.

OR get a HD STB ($8 per month) and record 480i signals through the s-video/composite cables, or record some HD signals, 720p & 1080i, through firewire. You are pretty much guaranteed to at least get your HD locals through firewire. Some people get all channels through firewire, others don't get anything except the locals, YMMV. You don't have to subscribe to a HD tier to get your HD locals, just some of the extra HD channels.

As for trying a QAM tuner like the HDHomerun, does your new LCD have a QAM tuner? If so, if you hook up your cable to it you could do a channel scan and see what digital channels you can get unscrambled. Those channels could be recorded in Sage with the HDHomerun.