HDHR with Comcast losing channels above 26?

[CaptSammy]

I hear they are going to encrypt above channel 26 soon. I JUST purchased an HD Homerun for SageTV (and it works GREAT BTW). Will the HDHR work with the Comcast box? If I am going to require a box anyway, should I switch to ATT UVerse at this time, if HDHR will even work with the Uverse box?

[jasonl]

The HDHomeRun is a digital tuner, the Comcast box outputs analog. The HDHomeRun will need to remain connected to the Comcast cable without a box in the way, and it will continue to receive whatever unencrypted channels are available.

U-verse uses a proprietary system that will not work at all without their box, and it is not compatible with the HDHomeRun.

Jason

[reggie14]

I wouldn't expect the HDHR to get anything other the local broadcast networks soon. Comcast did/does have a good portion of the expanded basic tier available in clear QAM, but I don't think that will last much longer. So, you'll be able to keep using your HDHR, you just won't get many channels.

The HDHR wouldn't work at all with U-verse, although you should be able to get locals with Verizon FiOS.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by CaptSammy

I hear they are going to encrypt above channel 26 soon. I JUST purchased an HD Homerun for SageTV (and it works GREAT BTW). Will the HDHR work with the Comcast box? If I am going to require a box anyway, should I switch to ATT UVerse at this time, if HDHR will even work with the Uverse box?

I'm not sure where you are located, but here in central CT they just did that. They've moved most of the channels above 26 over to digital. The good news is that at least in this area all those they moved to digital are clear QAM. I actually gained some stations that are clear QAM that they added a week after that change.

I just built a new server and have 2 HDHR's (straight cable into those) and an HD-PVR running off my cable box to get the encrypted channels.

I haven't moved my 2 old PVR-500's (PCI card with 2 analogue tuners on each card) over to the new box yet and am wondering if its even worth it.
With that latest change (and more to come I'm sure) those analogue tuners aren't getting many channels and all those it does get I can get in digital and/or HD via the HDHR in clear QAM.
So, do I bother to move them over or just get another couple HDHR's to replace them? (and pray that Comcast keeps the basic digital tier (i.e. under 100) in clear QAM)

That brings up a question I have to post in a new thread. On a gigabit network how many HDHR's are people using successfully? I have 2 now and haven't seen an issue. However if I want to replace my 2 PVR-500s and their 4 tuners with 4 HDHR tuners then I'd have a total of 4 HDHR's on my network.

[scat]

I am in Jacksonville, Fl and I lost one channel 80 truTV
the other day from the analog and QAM listing, there will probably be more to come.
I even tried my new Samsung 42" LCD TV to tune to that channel and no go.

Scat

[jasonl]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

That brings up a question I have to post in a new thread. On a gigabit network how many HDHR's are people using successfully? I have 2 now and haven't seen an issue. However if I want to replace my 2 PVR-500s and their 4 tuners with 4 HDHR tuners then I'd have a total of 4 HDHR's on my network.

Since I don't see another thread for it, I'll answer here. We've tested 4 HDHomeRuns (8 tuners) simultaneously streaming full, unfiltered 256QAM channels (38.8Mbit/s), for a total of ~310Mbit/s and seen no ill effects. I wouldn't try recording that much data to a single disk, however .

Jason
Silicondust Support