R5000 - stay with comcast or switch to dish?

[gkearneyca]

I currently use Comcast for DigitalTV and internet connection. I would like to find an HD solution and the R5000 appears to be the way to go. The question is switch to Dish or stay with comcast (SF Bay area)?

I guess what I am asking is what are your setups? pros/cons?

Provider: ?
model cable box or satellite box: ?
satisfaction level: ?
notes: goodness or badness.

(couldnt find a thread discussing this if there is one - please point me in that direction )

regards,
gk

[derringer]

I'm very interested in commetary in general from those who have taken the R5000 plunge with satellite.

Are you happy with your investment, and do you recommend it to others? Are there problems with getting it working smoothly, etc.? (In addition to the above questions, of course...)

I bet there are more than a few of us considering going down that road, so help us make the right decision! =)

[Fluffdaddy]

The R5000HD works seamlessly with SageTV. I'm with Dishnet because they had the most HD channels at the time. Comcast was out of the question for me because they refused to lease me the kind of stb the R5000 guys could mod. They kept asking why I wanted a stb without a firewire port, and of course I could not tell them

The R5000 mod to my ViP 211 ird was the best Home Theater decision I have made since Sage.

It's a bit one the pricey side, but what can you do?

[mikesm]

I love my R5000-HD mod with Comcast. I just bought a DCP501, and had them provision it. I always felt nervous about modding a leased box, but apparently it's quite commonly done with no issues.

The main reason I stayed with cable for the mod is that the MPEG2 support in Sage is more mature than the MPEG4 support required by dish. You need more storage, but other than that, I think it's an easier play. Showanalyzer and comskip all work fine with MPEG2, and the video card drivers and codec support are also more mature.

Thanks
mike

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by mikesm

I love my R5000-HD mod with Comcast. I just bought a DCP501, and had them provision it. I always felt nervous about modding a leased box, but apparently it's quite commonly done with no issues.

The main reason I stayed with cable for the mod is that the MPEG2 support in Sage is more mature than the MPEG4 support required by dish. You need more storage, but other than that, I think it's an easier play. Showanalyzer and comskip all work fine with MPEG2, and the video card drivers and codec support are also more mature.

Thanks
mike

Can you comment on the difficulty in getting them to provision it? Also, where did you buy it?

B

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Can you comment on the difficulty in getting them to provision it? Also, where did you buy it?

B

I can answer on my personal experience. I went to my local satellite Comcast office to ask them about provision my own stb, I was told absolutely Not, Comcast does not activate privately own stb's. I spent 20-30 minutes there and spoke to both the customer service supervisor and office manager and was told the same thing. I knew they were Dead Wrong, but did not need to stay a Comcast customer bad enough to go higher up the food chain or contact the FCC, so I sign up with Dishnetwork. This was 7 or 8 months ago, So I'm sure you will have better luck.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Can you comment on the difficulty in getting them to provision it? Also, where did you buy it?

B

It depends on the market. In my market, the SF bay area, the local comcst VIP line knew exactly what I was talking about and provisioned it right first time, HD channels and all. Others have found better luck doing an online chat, since the CSR's have access to a common Q&A database that has the DCP501 in it.

Best is to go ahead and call them and ask them to add it, and keep going until you get to the point where they ask you for the box serial number etc... Then say you have to take it out of the rack and call back - get the person's direct number, and then go buy one... :-)

Comcast is pretty decent at this, but don't even bother going to the local office etc... They have no clue. I have heard of lots of issues with charter.

Ebay is a good source for DCP501's. I tend to like buying them from excess solutions or another shop that has them new in the box, but I have also seen used units work fine too.

Note, the DCP501 only works in markets where Motorola boxes are used. If you are in a market with SA gear, then the R5000 mod isn't really available to you.

Thanks
Mike

[Deacon Crusher]

is this the DCP501's you are talking about?

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-IN-BOX-MOTOR...QQcmdZViewItem

seems like quite a rig to be feeding Sage.

Is there a cheaper (fewer features) box you can get that does just the cable stuff (and works with R500?)

thanks

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

is this the DCP501's you are talking about?

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-IN-BOX-MOTOR...QQcmdZViewItem

seems like quite a rig to be feeding Sage.

Is there a cheaper (fewer features) box you can get that does just the cable stuff (and works with R500?)

thanks

Selection on ebay varies over time. Generally you can get them a lot cheaper. Of course, you can always mod a leased box from comcast...

thx
mike

[mkanet]

The fake excuse I used as to why I specifically needed an old DCT-5100 (instead of the firewire DCT-6200) was because my TV's component input didnt synch too well to the new Motorola 6200 component output; and I knew for a fact, that it works fine with the older box.... oh yeah, and my TV doesnt have DVI input either. I used this excuse for both my DCT-5100 boxes. I had to go to 3 different local offices to find one that kept them in stock. If you have no good excuse at all, thats going to cause a lot of suspicion; such as, you wanting to get free premium channels or something stupid like that.

I'm crossing my fingers these will last me long enough to tie me over to next generation R5000 boxes that work reliably with sageTV!

[autoboy]

I have two DCP501 boxes in the SF Bay Area and the Mountain View service center didn't really understand what to do. I always talked to a 2nd tier tech and walked her through the process. She needs to get the #s from you box, send them to a person that will add them to their list, then your box will work. It took a few days but was relatively painless considering what I was asking. IU just got mine a few weeks ago and I'm still having some stability issues with it and the channels don't always change, but I think it is related to my lame Via USB controller. I got the recommended NEC chipset PCI card but I have yet to install it. I also have 3TB of drives laying around for a day that I have free.

I wonder if you guys know this though, I just heard that cable will be going with something called switched video, that only sends the data streams that are requested by the users, allowing more shows with less bandwidth. Do these older boxes, including the DCP501, work with the switched video? I know that HD Tivos will need a special USB device to work.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by autoboy

I have two DCP501 boxes in the SF Bay Area and the Mountain View service center didn't really understand what to do. I always talked to a 2nd tier tech and walked her through the process. She needs to get the #s from you box, send them to a person that will add them to their list, then your box will work. It took a few days but was relatively painless considering what I was asking. IU just got mine a few weeks ago and I'm still having some stability issues with it and the channels don't always change, but I think it is related to my lame Via USB controller. I got the recommended NEC chipset PCI card but I have yet to install it. I also have 3TB of drives laying around for a day that I have free.

I wonder if you guys know this though, I just heard that cable will be going with something called switched video, that only sends the data streams that are requested by the users, allowing more shows with less bandwidth. Do these older boxes, including the DCP501, work with the switched video? I know that HD Tivos will need a special USB device to work.

The tivo's need a special addon because cablecard is one way. Moto boxes don't because they are two way. That's why you an get ondemand and PPV on your DCP501. As long as they map the SDV streams to a channel number that triggers an SDV stream, it should work just fine with any Mot box, DCP501 included.

thanks,
mike

[WarlordBB]

Looks like Amazon has these DCP501 boxes too.

I'm on Comcast Cable in Nashville, TN and I'm going to give them a call and try the "can you provision my DCP501, oh, I'll need to pull it out of the rack, can I call you back" game.

I have 2 questions.

1. Is Sage able to change the channels without a USB-UIART thingie? (sounds like it, but might be some VIA issues?)
2. Properly provisioned, this thing receives all HD channels to the R5000-HD (meaning Sage) just like my current Moto 6200 does? (if so, wow)

For that matter, I have the same questions about the DirecTV and DISH route too.

TIA

~Brett

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by WarlordBB

Looks like Amazon has these DCP501 boxes too.

I'm on Comcast Cable in Nashville, TN and I'm going to give them a call and try the "can you provision my DCP501, oh, I'll need to pull it out of the rack, can I call you back" game.

I have 2 questions.

1. Is Sage able to change the channels without a USB-UIART thingie? (sounds like it, but might be some VIA issues?)
2. Properly provisioned, this thing receives all HD channels to the R5000-HD (meaning Sage) just like my current Moto 6200 does? (if so, wow)

For that matter, I have the same questions about the DirecTV and DISH route too.

TIA

~Brett

Warlord, on your questions:

1: Yes, channel changing is done through the usb interface. The R5000 mod feeds an IR signal directly into the circuitry of the box. No ir blaster etc... It is very reliable.

2. Also yes, the R5000 captures the raw mpeg stream, SD or HD. Anything that you are authorized to recieve, the R5000 will capture. I record HBO HD, ESPN HD, etc..., as well as SD programming via the R5000. No problems, no DRM, and fully integrated into Sage.

And yes, wow is a good response. It's what DVR's should be able to do but usually can't.

thx
mike

[WarlordBB]

Thanks for your reply. Answers some questions and I've also been doing some reading up.

So much so that I ordered E* with a 622 for the living room and a 211 for my Sage Server. I'll be sending that 211 off for R5000 modding ASAP.

Seems there was some problems with Sage playing H.264, not sure if that's resolved yet. Seems weird because I hear people saying they Sage doesn't work well so they are using PDVD Ultra (which I have for my BD and HDDVD). However, I thought Sage was capable of using it's own "graph" (which I thought meant you could chain whatever "filters"/codecs you wanted).

Anyway, I guess I've answered the OP question for myself at least.

THX

[HawgGuy]

Sage will play the HD streams from your r5000-hd Dish receiver just fine with a little tweaking. The Cyberlink h.264 codec is used. I think most people get best results with either the ATI 2400/2600 or Nvidia 8500GT flavor video cards.

[Fluffdaddy]

PDVD Ultra and Nvidia 8500GT solved all my H.264 problems. 99% of my HD streams playbacks are now flawless.

[WarlordBB]

I'm probably going to use an 8800GT but I'm pretty sure all that have the real h.264 h/w accell will do fine (unlike my very expensive 8800GTX )

[wirecreative]

Originally Posted by mikesm

Warlord, on your questions:

1: Yes, channel changing is done through the usb interface. The R5000 mod feeds an IR signal directly into the circuitry of the box. No ir blaster etc... It is very reliable.

2. Also yes, the R5000 captures the raw mpeg stream, SD or HD. Anything that you are authorized to recieve, the R5000 will capture. I record HBO HD, ESPN HD, etc..., as well as SD programming via the R5000. No problems, no DRM, and fully integrated into Sage.

And yes, wow is a good response. It's what DVR's should be able to do but usually can't.

thx
mike

I'm also considering this route.

So, does the R5000 -- connected to the PC via USB -- show up in Sage as an additional tuner?

So I would effectively have my two analog tuners, plus the r5000 as video sources?

[mkanet]

Yes to both questions. Although, I doubt you would be using your analog tuners much after you get your R5000

Originally Posted by wirecreative

I'm also considering this route.

So, does the R5000 -- connected to the PC via USB -- show up in Sage as an additional tuner?

So I would effectively have my two analog tuners, plus the r5000 as video sources?