General Question

[diodeut]

Hello All,

I am just floating this out there to see what kind of options I may have.

I just got a 2250 right before comcast converted there cable over to all digital... and I have sagetv7 istalled also. this is on a XP machine in the basement connected to two MVP extenders.

Before the digital switch this set up was great, but now I am pretty much limited to the local stations OTA stuff.

Am I missing something or someway that I should have my system configured? I seem to really only use it to record 1-2 network shows during the fall and to stream music to the living room. I have had sagetv for over 6+ years, but it seems that with the digital switch the usefullness has gone way downhill.

I am keeping my eye on other options that seem to be out there(homerun prime, sageDCT), but everything seems like it would be a major system change up. Is the 2250 card even worth having as part of my system?

Oh well...Just kind of wondering what direction to go, because I have really like the sagetv setup I have, but I am not sure if I should hang on to it?

Thanks

[wbarber69]

Question one: is the 2250 installed right now
And two: have you ran a channel scan on the digital tuner part of the 2250 to see if you get any channels.
I'm on charter and they are slowly making every channel even the analog ones digital for some stupid reason. Anyway I am now getting sd channels showing up on my digital tuner (which is kind of a pain) and now I have my local hd stations as well as their sd counterparts available over digital on my 2250/1600 respectively.

Just because comcast went purely digital does not mean you cannot pickup any stations.

[panteragstk]

I use the 2250 for ota and colossus for directv. Qam was good, but has been locked down to what you get from ota. I'm hoping that when I get my TWC internet they have qam opened up so I can get rid of my antenna. Quality won't be as good, but abc has such low power in my area I'd rather not deal with the random dropouts.

[diodeut]

I have run the channel scans for both tunners and all that seems to come through now are the local network stations (NCB CBS ABC...) and all the local access stuff. I think what I am running into is that those are the only channels comcast has on clear QAM. So stations like USA, discovery, comedy channel are encoded and I cannot find them in my channel search....

If I understand it right a cablecard would get those, but them I would need to use sagedct to get that to work. Not to mention more money in a ceaton card....

[will]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I'm hoping that when I get my TWC internet they have qam opened up so I can get rid of my antenna. Quality won't be as good, but abc has such low power in my area I'd rather not deal with the random dropouts.

I use TWC and in my area the HD QAM channels are restricted to Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. They offer some other random channels (like the local NBC news only channel) but TWC only offers over QAM what you can pickup with an antenna. Also, everything they offer over QAM, except for Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS, is low quality SD.

You definitely need HD-PVR/Colossus with TWC.

[DaveS]

Originally Posted by diodeut

If I understand it right a cablecard would get those, but them I would need to use sagedct to get that to work. Not to mention more money in a ceaton card....

A Ceton will only pick up the same clear qam channels unless you use a cable card because of DRM, and that won't work in Sage. Only WMC will use the cable card to access all those copy protected channels. Your options in Sage are HD-PVR or Colossus. I use a 2250 (1 side gets analog since Cox still provides it, 1 side get digital.) I use the HD-PVR for all my other cable channels. Despite all the complaints I've heard about it, I've been using the HD-PVR for a couple of years and it's been rock solid.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by will

I use TWC and in my area the HD QAM channels are restricted to Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. They offer some other random channels (like the local NBC news only channel) but TWC only offers over QAM what you can pickup with an antenna. Also, everything they offer over QAM, except for Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS, is low quality SD.

You definitely need HD-PVR/Colossus with TWC.

I have a colossus for directv. I don't actually have TV from TWC. I was just wondering if I could use qam for locals instead of my antenna since I am getting TWC cable internet. I doubt they would lock down qam if I have internet with them. I'll find out on Wednesday.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I have a colossus for directv. I don't actually have TV from TWC. I was just wondering if I could use qam for locals instead of my antenna since I am getting TWC cable internet. I doubt they would lock down qam if I have internet with them. I'll find out on Wednesday.

Don't know about TWC but MediaCom (my provider) doesn't lock down the locals and I only have internet access from them. DirectTV for video.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Don't know about TWC but MediaCom (my provider) doesn't lock down the locals and I only have internet access from them. DirectTV for video.

None of the cable ISP's I've ever had do, but I've never used TWC so I thought I'd ask. Thanks. 4 years of tethering my phone for internet will be over tomorrow. So happy.