Comcast HD Boxes

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by sflamm

Take our experience with the HDHR and clearQAM. Every once and a while Comcast would move channels around or temporarily encrypt something by accident. Having this added to the Channel Guide would really help that.

Maybe. But once you set it up you won't know if Comcast decided to copy-protect something until you miss a recording, since Sage doesn't have a way to query that sort of information from the HDHR utility, and the HDHR utility won't automatically warn you when there's a change.

Still, you're absolutely right that many customers would benefit from knowing both what channels they'll get both before purchase and during setup.

Originally Posted by sflamm

How did you figure out which ones were copy protected? Did you use the STB diagnostics?

Mainly because I do firewire recording. I heard from a Sage user on these boards that happens to live near me that firewire recording over the DCT6200 worked. So I got one and tried it. Sure enough it worked. I've used the STB diagnostics before just because I've been curious, but my main method for checking the copy protection status was to open up VLC, point it to one of my DCT6200s, and I cycled through the channels.

You might wonder why I want to bother with cablecard if I have a working firewire recorder. Well, its mainly because I'm convinced sgraphrecorder, the universal network encoder that you need to use for firewire recording, is very buggy. I need to do scheduled reboots every few days to keep my system going. The preemptive reboots work, but I think its a very bad sign. I also need to be careful that I never have two consecutive recordings on different channels that use the firewire tuner, since that seems to lock up channel changes on that STB until I reboot my machine.

So, right now I have 2xDCT6200s, one hooked up to my HD-PVR so I can get HBO, STARZ, and, oddly, SD channels. For some reason digital SD channels won't work over firewire. The diagnostics page indicates they aren't copy protected, but they still won't work over firewire.

[sflamm]

Mainly because I do firewire recording. I heard from a Sage user on these boards that happens to live near me that firewire recording over the DCT6200 worked.

Funny, I tried the exact same thing with sgraphrecorder and the DCT6200 - and also found it to be buggy. For me, preemptive reboots was not an option. Especially since I run SageTV on a server that needs to be up 24x7. I only moved to the HD-PVRs as a result.

I forgot that I can also use that to check channel flag status. Now that you mention it - last time I used it most everything was visible to VLC, which of course means the copy-freely flag must have been set for the firewire port to be active on that channel...

oddly, SD channels. For some reason digital SD channels won't work over firewire. The diagnostics page indicates they aren't copy protected, but they still won't work over firewire.

I had the same experience. This was an added bonus of moving to the HD-PVR.

since Sage doesn't have a way to query that sort of information from the HDHR utility, and the HDHR utility won't automatically warn you when there's a change.

Good point. But it is also valuable to know whether Comcast changed something or if it should work but something has changed on your system. It comes in handy for that as well.

[doncote0]

Not sure how they are doing it, but I know they are doing it in my area. Right now when trying to record Dexter on my Mot 6200 (channel 574) using my HDPVR, the recording always fails. Always. No rhyme or reason. A recording to any other channel (say SyFy HD) immediately after will succeed without any problems.

I have checked during the recording, and the box is definitely tuned to the right channel. I can even watch the output on a tv. The recording still fails though.

I have already heard from others that the technology to shutdown the HDHR capture already exists. I suspect that the Showtime failure isn't just an amazing coincidence.

You can't really "guarantee" many things. Comcast and other media providers will do what they can and are legally allowed to do in order to maximize their revenue. Technology is changing and always will change as long as profits can be made.

Since nothing would change except for saving monthly STB costs and being able to record cable HD on multiple streams, I am all for it.

Maybe my Dexter HD problem is just that it comes in @ 1080i with full resolution and maximum audio and my capture settings exceed the capabilities of the HDPVR. No other channel fails though.

[gplasky]

I have no problem recording Dexter or any other premium content (HBO, Video on Demand, etc.) with my HD-PVR using a Comcast 6200 moto box and SPDIF 5.1 audio. Is this a manual recording or a favorite? If it is a favorite I had this happen before and just had to delete and recreate the favorite. Are you saying you can't record the Showtime channel (574) at all or just the Dexter show?

Gerry

[doncote0]

Yes, it is a favorite.

I don't think that I have ever tried anything else on that channel. I'll try the favorite recreate even though that doesn't make any sense to me why that would work.

If it works, great.

Thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how it goes after more testing.